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THE  COUNTRY  HOUSE    LIBRARY 

BUNGALOWS  Hy  Henry  II.  Sayhr 

THE  HALF-TIMBER  HOUSE 

By  AlUn  W.  Jackion 

CONCRETE  AND  STUCCO  HOUSES 

By  Oawald  C.  Ilering 

ARCHITECTURAL  STYLES  FOR  COUNTRY 

HOMES 

A  symponum  by  promitunl  archittcti 


IN    PREPARATION 

RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

By  Charles  Edward  Hooper 

THE  DUTCH  COLONIAL  HOUSE 

By  Aymar  Embury,  II. 

FURNISHING  THE  HOME  OF  GOOD  TASTE 

By  Lucy  Abbot  Throop 

THE  COLONIAL  HOUSE 

By  Joseph  Everett  Chandler 

HOMES  THAT  ARCHITECTS  HAVE    BUILT 

FOR  THEMSELVES 

By  the  Archlteett  and  Others 

McBRIDE,  NAST  &  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 


MW^ 


Hftll-limbcr  work  «*;  i     ,     ,.ist   in  tunjurn-lion  \w[|i   olher  malenals,  where  the 

contrasting  pattern  between  the  plaster  and  the  wood  work  is  kept  very  simple,  or  restricted  to  use 

for  features  of  the  building  that  need  accent. 


THE 

HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

ITS   ORIGIN,  DESIGN,  MODERN  PLAN, 
AND   CONSTRUCTION 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  PHOTOGRAPHS  OF  OLD  EXAMPLES  AND 
AMERICAN  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  STYLE 


BY 

ALLEN  W.  JACKSON 


NEW  YORK 

McBRIDE,  NAST  &  COMPANY 

1912 


Copyright,  191i,by 
McBhidk,  Nast  &  Co. 


Published  March,  191« 


/?/z 


TO 

ALL    THOSE 

WHO    OWN 

CASTLES    IN    SPAIN 


Contents 


Page 

Preface xi 

Introduction xv 

History  of  English  Domestic  Architecture  ....  1 

The  Half-timber  House  in  England 9 

Is  THE    Half-timber   Style    Suited    to    Our   Needs 

To-day? 18 

The    Charm    of    Old    Work   and    How    We    May 

Obtain  It 24 

The  Choice  of  Styles 31 

English  and  American  House  Plans 37 

How  TO  Plan  the  House 43 

Methods  of  Construction 63 

Exterior  Details 84 

Interior  Details 100 


T'he  Illustrations 


A    modem   half-timber   house   showing   admirable   restraint   in   the 

timbering Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

"  The  Gables,"  Thelwall,  England xvi 

Symmetry  in  half-timber  work xvii 

A  brick  and  half-timber  house  at  Bryn  Mawr,  Pa xviii 

French  half-timber  buildings 1 

A  survival  of  the  earliest  form  of  half-timber  construction 4 

The  Hall,  "  Compton  Wynyates  " 5 

Gateway,  St.  John's  Hospital,  Canterbury 8 

A  gate  house,  Stokesay,  Shropshire 9 

The  charm  of  weather-worn  surfaces 12 

The  use  of  closely  spaced  vertical  timbers 13 

Half-timber  work  with  brick  filling 14 

The  overhang  of  upper  stories  and  an  old  house  in  Rouen 15 

The  projecting  pins  in  half-timber  work 16 

Quatrefoil  pattern  in  timbering 17 

"  Stonecroft,"  a  modem  English  house 18 

The  charm  of  an  English  village  street 19 

A  stone  and  half-timber  house  near  Philadelphia  and  an  American 

example  of  Enghsh  craftsmanship  revived 20 

A  modern  American  half-timber  house  expressing  its  plan 21 

A  typical  Enghsh  town  house  front     22 

An  English  cottage  that  seems  to  have  grown  in  its  setting 23 

Grouped  windows 24 

A  small  English  manor  and  a  charming  example  of  composition  ...  25 

Wide  spacing  of  timbers 26 

A  successful  attempt  to  soften  the  roof  lines 27 

Unpainted  American  half-timbering 28 

Restraint  in  the  employment  of  half-timbering 29 

The  softening  influences  of  time  and  weather 80 

The  half-timber  house  developed  in  a  flat  country 81 

An  English  gardener's  lodge  in  America 84 

Half-timber  work  on  a  stone  base 85 


X  THE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Faoixo  Paob 

A  contrast  of  half-timber  patterns 42 

The  long,  low,  rambling  tv-pe 43 

The  Hall,  "  Seal  Hollow,"  Sevenoaks,  Kent 46 

An  American  dining-room 47 

A  house  built  with  second-hand  timbering 60 

New  houses  at  Port  Sunlight,  England 61 

A  garage  in  a  half-timber  house 58 

A  half-timber  house  in  Cambridge,  Mass 59 

Half-timber  embellishment  with  restraint 64 

Half-timbering  against  plain  walls  as  a  foil 65 

A  deUil  of  "  The  Gables,"  Thelwall,  England 72 

"The  Gables,"  ThelwaU,  England 73 

True  half-timber  work  in  process  of  construction 76 

"  Stonecroft,"  Appleton,  Cheshire 77 

Half-timber  work  is  seen  at  its  best  where  the  strong  black-and-white 

contrasts  are  limited  to  a  few  points  of  accent 81 

Half-timbering  spread  evenly  over  the  walls  of  a  house 82 

Enrichment  of  detail  on  an  old  English  cottage 83 

Flat  red  tile  on  a  modern  house 86 

Graduated  roof  slates 87 

The  chimney  as  an  important  element  in  the  design 88 

Elaborate  chimney  designs 89 

Casement  windows  and  small  panes 90 

Small  panes  as  an  inevitable  feature  of  half-timber  work 91 

The  sheltered  doorway  of  an  English  house 94 

A  new  doorway  and  an  old  one 95 

The  terrace 98 

Rain-water  heads 99 

A  living-room  and  its  fireplace 102 

A  modem  dining-room 103 

Plastered  ceiling  and  car\'ed  paneling 106 

A  modem  English  Uving-room 107 

A  room  in  King's  Head  Inn 110 

Two  carved  mantelpieces Ill 

The  stair  hall  in  an  American  half -timber  house 112 

A  living-room  with  gallery  in  an  American  home 113 


Preface 


THIS  book  is  not  intended  as  a  technical  treatise.    It  has 
not  been  written  with  the  professional  reader  in  mind  and 
is  without  pretention  to  be  a  serious  contribution  to  the 
history  of  architecture.    It  is  addressed  primarily  to  the  general 
reader  having  an  interest  in  house  building  or  to  those  who  have 
in  mind  building  for  themselves. 

If  it  serves  to  call  the  attention  of  any  such  to  this  English 
work  or  to  arouse  their  interest  in  the  matter  as  a  whole,  it  will 
have  fulfilled  its  purpose.  In  the  mind  of  the  author  it  is  further 
meant  to  be  at  once  a  protest  against  the  stereotyped  use  of  cer- 
tain historical  styles  for  contemporary  use,  and  a  plea  for  a  greater 
freslaness  and  virility  than  is  often  found  in  the  work  of  to-day. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  acknowledge  all  the  sources  of  in- 
formation drawn  upon,  but  mention  should  be  made  of  S.  O. 
Aldy's  The  Evolution  of  the  English  House,  J.  A.  Gotch's  His- 
tory of  the  Early  Renaissance  in  England,  and  the  various  works 
of  P.  H.  Litchfield.  Nor  must  the  author  omit  to  express  his 
thanks  to  the  Publishers  of  Country  Life  (London),  The  Archi- 
tectural Review  and  B.  T.  Batsford,  for  the  use  of  illustrations 
owned  by  them. 

Chapter  III.  is  largely  taken  from  a  previous  article  which 
appeared  in  House  and  Garden. 

After  much  hesitation  the  author  has  illustrated  some  of  his 
own  work.  He  has  been  led  to  do  this  not  because  of  its  supposed 
merit,  but  rather  because  it  happened  to  illustrate  certain  points 
which  he  wished  to  make,  better  than  any  other  work  of  which 
illustrations  were  available. 

Allen  W.  Jackson 

909  Brattle  St.,  Ca>irriix}I 
November  30,  1911 


THE 

HALF-TIMBER 

HOUSE 


Introduction 


THE  whole  question  of  so-called  "  style  "  in  architecture  is 
an  interesting  one  for  the  student.  There  exists  an  intel- 
hgent  opinion  that  the  architectural  styles  of  the  past  are 
dead,  and  that  it  is  a  servile  and  barren  archaism  to  persist  in  work- 
ing over  old  forms;  which,  because  the  causes  of  their  being  have 
ceased  to  operate,  have  become  lifeless  material,  and  the  result 
moribund  and  an  obstruction  to  real  advance  in  architecture  and 
esthetics.  While  it  is  true  that  the  conditions  which  gave  birth 
to,  and  differentiated,  the  architectural  styles  have  lost  their  force, 
they  have  at  the  same  time  become  so  broadened  and  made  free 
that  any  of  the  styles  may  now  be  properly  used  where  their 
characteristics  do  not  render  them  impracticable  from  the  utili- 
tarian i^oint  of  view.  This  is  the  only  excuse  for  the  eclecticism 
of  the  present  day. 

The  differences  and  peculiarities  of  the  various  styles  were 
due  to  climate,  to  materials  at  hand,  and  to  the  pecuharities  of  the 
civilization  under  which  they  came  into  existence.  Let  us  con- 
sider briefly  a  typical  Italian  farmhouse.  The  material  is  stone, 
both  because  that  was  the  material  easiest  to  be  had  and  because 
it  would  keep  out  the  heat  of  summer.  The  windows  are  small, 
the  cornices  overhang  widely  —  to  keep  out  the  excessive  light 
of  a  southern  sun.  The  result,  if  we  go  no  farther,  is  a  certain 
type  of  house,  the  logical  outgrowth  of  fulfilling  the  require- 
ments in  the  easiest  way.  With  an  English  farm  we  find  the 
same  logical  result.  In  the  stone  country  of  the  north  the  build- 
ings are  of  stone;  in  the  timber  country  of  the  south,  of  timber; 
and  because  of  the  many  dull  gray  days  they  all,  unlike  the 
Itahan  houses,  coax  the  sun  with  plenty  of  windows  and  little  or 
no  cornice  with  its  accompanying  shadow.  Thus  working  along 
the  lines  pointed  out  by  necessity  and  convenience,  each  arrived 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

at  a  perfect  arcliitectural  expression  of  his  own  condition,  re- 
quirements, and  point  of  view.  Tliis  development  was  still  fur- 
ther kept  a  mirror  of  the  peculiar  genius  and  environment  of  the 
builders  by  their  ignorance  of  what  others  were  doing.  The 
English  carpenter  never  saw  the  Italian  roof  or  the  Spanish 
patio,  and  was  not  tempted  to  experiment  in  these  things.  His 
building  was  unaffected.  His  very  limitations  were  a  source  of 
strength,  and  the  difference  in  the  result  correctly  measures  the 
racial  differences  between  one  country  and  another.  This  is  as 
it  should  be,  and  a  real  style  is  the  inevitable  result.  In  tliis  way 
only  can  an  architectural  style  be  formed. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  case  in  this  country.  Can  we  have  a 
United  States  style  of  architecture?  Our  architecture  will  differ- 
entiate itself  from  that  of  other  countries,  in  just  so  much  as  our 
type  and  degree  of  civilization  is  different  from  theirs.  It  will 
be  as  individual  and  peculiar  as  the  demands,  and  our  ability  to 
fulfill  them,  are  peculiar  and  individual. 

In  the  twentieth  century  such  differences  are  all  very  slight 
among  the  more  highly  civilized  nations.  Not  only  is  there  a 
similarity  in  requirement  and  an  equal  facility  in  building  skill, 
but  the  building  materials  of  the  world  are  equally  accessible 
to  all.  The  requirements  of  the  life  led  by  a  gentleman  in  New 
York,  London,  Paris,  and  Vienna  nowadays  are  much  the  same. 
All  desire  to  live  on  the  same  kind  of  well  policed  street.  Their 
business  and  social  lives  are  much  alike.  All  wear  the  same 
sort  of  clothes,  heat  their  houses  in  the  same  way;  modern  sani- 
tary appliances  are  common  to  all ;  all  have  electric  light ;  all  live 
secure  and  peaceful  lives.  The  powerful  families  of  New  York 
do  not  need  a  fortified  tower  into  which  to  gather  their  households 
when  the  hirelings  of  a  rival  house  come  charging  around  the  cor- 
ner. The  gentleman  on  the  Champs  Elysees  does  not  need  a  moat 
and  drawbridge,  or  contrivances  to  greet  the  guest  with  molten 
lead.  The  Viennese  citizen  no  longer  builds  his  house  with  a 
watchtower,  on  the  top  of  a  precipitous  rock.  Any  of  these 
gentlemen  can  build  of  what  material  he  pleases  or  can  afford 


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INTRODUCTION  .  xvii 

—  wood,  stone,  brick,  tile  or  steel  are  equally  wnthin  the  reach  of 
all.  Structurally  then  their  houses  will  be  much  alike,  and  as 
decoration  should  be  the  direct  outgrowth  of  structure,  and  clothe 
the  skeleton  with  grace  and  beauty  without  denying  the  exist- 
ence of  the  bones,  there  is  no  reason  for  any  logical  difference 
in  appearances.  Such  differences  as  exist  are  the  measure  of  the 
distance  we  have  still  to  travel  to  reach  the  perfect  cosmopoli- 
tanism. The  local  inherited  forms  and  motives  of  decoration 
are  nowadays  no  better  known  to  the  builders  of  any  locality 
than  are  those  of  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  since  the  labors  of 
!Mr.  Daguerre  and  JNIr.  Thomas  Cook  have  made  us  all  so  wise. 
There  will  be  perforce,  much  interchange  and  borrowing  ac- 
cording to  individual  preference,  and  it  becomes  a  question  of 
individual  taste  in  style  rather  than  a  rigidly  imposed  national 
one. 

Another  great  source  of  freedom  is  the  gain  in  structural 
material.  In  the  old  days  of  brick,  stone,  mortar,  wood  and  tile, 
the  ambitions  of  him  who  would  soar  were  held  do^vn  by  the  very 
limited  powers  of  those  materials.  A  stone  will  cover  but  a  small 
opening,  and  even  an  arch  stretched  to  the  extent  of  those  found 
in  the  Roman  baths,  pays  a  great  price  in  space  and  weight  for 
its  still  limited  span.  Timber  has  an  even  more  restricted  useful- 
ness in  size  and  strength,  as  well  as  in  durabihty.  The  same  is 
true  of  columns  which  hold  the  superstructure,  and  even  the  at- 
tenuation attained  by  the  Gotliic  builders  in  their  most  daring 
work  soon  reached  its  limitations.  But  nowadays,  since  ]\Ir.  Car- 
negie has  put  a  wand  of  steel  into  the  hands  of  the  builder,  he  has 
become  something  very  like  a  magician,  and  if  he  does  not  quite 
build  castles  in  the  air,  he  at  least  api)roaclies  very  near  it,  and 
is  daily  growing  to  have  less  and  less  respect  for  the  old-fashioned 
law  of  gravitation.  Chimneys  and  towers  which  formerly  had  to 
start  from  the  ground,  may  now  begin  in  tiie  attic  and  are  not 
allowed  below  stairs  where  they  get  in  tlie  way.  Great  audi- 
toriums may  be  placed  in  the  centre  of  buildings,  with  a  dozen 
floors  of  offices  over  the  ceiling.     Supports  are  in  disgrace  and 


xvui  INTRODUCTION 

are  either  done  away  with  or  relegated  to  out-of-the-way  corners. 
And  as  for  height,  who  shall  say  ? 

With  all  the  world,  then,  having  equal  access  to  all  the  mate- 
rials of  building,  with  housing  reciuirements  varying  but  little, 
with  each  builder  perfectly  familiar  with  the  architectural  monu- 
ments and  history  of  the  world,  there  seems  but  a  sorry  chance  of 
any  United  States  style.  It  would  require  a  new,  radical, 
unheard-of  departure  in  our  mode  of  living  to  bring  forward 
demands  so  novel  that  they  could  be  met  only  by  fresh  discoveries 
in  materials  or  methods  to  really  constitute  a  new  style. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  if  we  are  to  have  new  styles  of 
architecture,  they  will  be  world-wide  and  mark  new  advances  in 
building  material,  or  new  and  extraordinary  housing  problems. 

Meanwhile  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  individual  genius  to 
exercise  itself  with  the  creation  of  beauty  in  building,  and  to  this 
there  is  no  end,  for  if  there  are  nine  and  sixty  methods  of  con- 
structing tribal  lays,  there  are  certainly  as  many  of  conceiving 
each  of  nine  and  sixty  different  sorts  of  buildings.  If  we  are 
sometimes  tempted  to  complain  that  we  are  born  too  late  and 
that  all  the  changes  have  been  rung  on  four  walls  and  a  roof,  we 
may  find  some  comfort  in  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds'  remark  that 
"  Art  comes  by  a  kind  of  felicity  and  not  bj'  rule,"  in  which  case 
we  need  not  fear  of  exliausting  its  possibihties. 


All  old  farmhouse  at  Chaumont 


A  royal  playhouse,  Versailles.     While  the  French  h.ilf-timber  work  is  interesting, 
it  does  not  belong  to  us  in  the  way  that  the  half-tiraber  houses  of  England  do 


History  of  English  Domestic  Architecture 


WHILE  what  are  known  as  "  Half-timber  "  buildings  are 
equally  indigenous  to  England,  France  and  Germany,  it 
is  with  the  work  in  England  that  we  shall  chiefly  concern 
oursehes.  AVhile  the  French  and  German  work  is  of  just  as 
higli  a  type  and  of  equal  interest  to  the  student  of  architectm-e, 
for  us  it  is  a  "  foreign  "  style  in  a  sense  in  wliich  the  more  ethnic 
work  of  England  is  not.  In  the  half-timber  houses  of  England 
were  born,  lived  and  died  our  own  great-grandfathers;  these 
houses  were  conceived  and  wrought  out  by  our  own  progenitors; 
they  are  our  architectural  heritage,  our  homesteads,  and  hold  an 
important  place  in  our  building  history. 

This  is  not  true  of  the  German  and  French  work,  which  is 
strange  and  foreign  to  us  in  its  motives  and  feeling,  with  notliing 
in  common  with  the  Island  work  but  the  name.  It  has  had  no 
influence  on  our  own  work,  and  is  entirely  outside  the  story  of 
the  English  and  American  home  with  which  we  purpose  to  con- 
cern ourselves  in  this  book.  This  timber  work  of  the  Continent 
is  in  fact  an  excellent  example  of  how  the  same  materials  used 
for  the  same  end,  in  the  hands  of  men  of  diff'erent  genius,  pro- 
duce a  result  that  in  each  case  takes  its  color  from  the  mind  of 
its  creator  —  it  is  a  subtle  document,  a  bit  of  racial  evidence  of 
the  atmosi)here  that  surrounds  it. 

Half-timber  work,  or,  as  it  is  often  called,  "  black-and-white," 
is  sometimes  deflned  by  English  writers  as  that  sort  of  building 
in  which  the  first  story  is  of  masonry  and  of  which  the  second 
story  only  is  timbered;  when  the  whole  building  is  timbered  it  is 
properly  called  "  all-timbered."  This  is  not  the  commonly 
accepted  idea  of  most  architects,  who  understand  by  the  term 
"  half-timber "  that  the  whole  or  part  of  tiic  buililing  is  con- 
structed with  a  timber  frame  filled  \\\  with  brick,  mortar,  or  some- 


2  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

thing  of  the  sort,  that  produces  the  effect  of  "  black  "  stripes  on 
a  white  wall.  This  is  "  black-and-white  "  work,  or,  if  looked  at 
from  the  builder's  point  of  view,  half  timber  and  half  filling. 

This  method  of  building  is  very  old.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  it 
came  into  being  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  more  primitive  work  which 
preceded  it,  and  was  the  natural  outcome  of  following  the  lines 
of  least  resistance,  with  no  thought  of  what  it  would  look  like  or 
where  it  would  lead.  It  is  evident  that  it  did  not  become  the 
vogue  because  stripes  happened  to  be  the  fashion,  but  for  the 
much  more  satisfactory  reason  that  it  was  the  simplest,  easiest, 
and  quickest  way  of  getting  a  house,  and  fulfilled  the  few  neces- 
sary requirements. 

Although  there  are  probably  not  standing  to-day  any  half- 
timber  houses  older  than  the  fifteenth  century,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  houses  of  this  character  were  being  built  for  a  hundred  years 
before  that  time.  The  oldest  half-timber  houses  we  have  left 
to-day  are  often  disguised  in  a  strange  dress  and  are  made  to  pass 
themselves  off  as  having  tile  walls,  or  are  boarded  in  with  wide 
horizontal  deal  boards.  The  reason  for  this  is  not  a  desire  to  de- 
ceive, but  because  "  it  prolongs  the  life,  and  is  just  as  good,"  as 
benzoate  of  soda  is  used  with  old  fruit.  In  cases  of  this  sort  it  is 
ugliness  that  is  only  skin  deep,  and  our  honest  great  timbers,  sil- 
vered with  age,  are  just  beneath  the  surface.  The  frames  were 
ordinarily  of  oak,  which  as  it  first  shrunk  and  then  decayed,  not 
only  pulled  away  from  the  mortar  filling  but  opened  up  mortises 
and  presented  gaping  joints  to  the  weather,  racking  the  building 
and  making  it  in  course  of  time  uninhabitable.  To  make  the  walls 
tight  without  rebuilding,  the  expedient  was  adopted  of  strapping 
them  and  hanging  on  tile,  or  boarding  the  surface,  and  in  this  way 
continuing  the  life  and  usefulness  of  the  structure. 

This  type  of  work  is  not  found  all  over  England,  but  only  in 
the  timbered  districts,  or  what  formerly  were  the  timbered  dis- 
tricts —  roughly  speaking,  in  the  central,  western,  and  southern 
portions.  In  the  north,  stone  has  always  been  the  first  thing  at 
hand  and  was  universally  used  for  both  walls  and  roofing,  even 


ENGLISH   DOMESTIC    ARCHITECTURE 


in  the  small  cottages.  In  the  south,  with  timber  went  excellent 
clay  for  making  tile  and  brick,  and  these  were  both  much  used, 
although  at  a  later  date,  as  we  find  no  mention  of  brick  before 
1400,  and  tile  was  probably  coeval  with  it. 

Before  considering  the  half-timber  work  proper,  let  us  see 
what  preceded  it  and  of  what  it  was  the  outgrowth  and  legitimate 
successor.  The  earliest  houses  of  which  we  have  any  real  knowl- 
edge, were  formed  by  the  placing  of  great  crucks,  which  were  the 
naturally  curved  trunks  of  trees,  with  their  bases  some  distance 


Fig.    1.     The    frames   of   the  earliest 

houses,  formed  with  the  curved  trunks 

of  trees 


Fig.  2.    The  next  step  was  to  put 

a  wall  under  this  roof,  gaining 

au  attic 


apart,  and  sloping  them  toward  each  other  until  the  tops  met. 
The  tops  were  fastened  together  and  the  pair  braced  by  what  we 
should  now  call  a  collar  beam,  the  whole  forming  a  letter  A  (see 
I'ig.  1).  A  similar  frame  was  set  up  at  a  convenient  distance, 
and  the  two  joined  with  purlins,  the  outside  of  these  sloping  walls 
or  roof  —  for  they  were  both  one  and  the  other  —  being  further 
braced  and  joined  with  smaller  structural  filling,  and  then  entirely 
covered  and  made  tight  against  the  weather  by  thatch,  slates  or 
whatever  came  to  hand.  Sometimes  transepts  called  "  shots  " 
were  constructed  at  right  angles  to  gain  more  space.  An  ordinary 
building  consisted  of  several  of  these  bays.  The  determination  of 
the  pro])er  spacing  of  these  j)airs  of  crucks  forming  bays  is  inter- 
esting, and  typical  of  the  kind  of  pressing  utilitarian  requirements 
which  dictate  the  direction  and  mold  the  growth  of  architec- 


4  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

tural  style.  It  has  been  observed  of  them  that  they  were  always 
spaced  about  sixteen  feet  apart.  This  distance  is  exactly  that 
required  for  the  stabling  of  a  double  yoke  of  oxen,  which  was  the 
team  commonly  used  in  plowing  at  the  time  these  houses  were 
built.  The  projection  of  the  cruck  into  the  room  would  naturally 
indicate  the  place  for  a  division  or  partition.  As  a  further  bit 
of  evidence  that  these  bays  were  a  proper  width  for  the  stabling 
of  cattle  we  find  that  the  Latin  writers  on  agriculture  lay  it 
down  as  a  rule  that  a  pair  of  oxen  should  occupy  what  is  the 
equivalent  of  eight  feet,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  that  in  a  far 
distant  country,  and  after  an  interval  of  a  thousand  years,  the 
thickness  of  an  ox  has  not  changed;  so  that  if  he  is  evolving 
at  all  it  must  be  in  the  direction  of  his  length.  The  houses  of 
tliis  ])eriod  are  always  spoken  of  in  the  old  deeds  in  terms  of 
bays,  that  is,  as  being  six  bays,  or  four  and  one-half  bays  and 
so  on. 

It  might  also  be  noted  in  passing  that  our  field  measure,  the 
rod,  is  derived  in  the  same  waj',  and  is  the  space  taken  up  by  four 
oxen  plowing  abreast.  To  make  our  farms  produce  not  onlj^  all 
material  things  necessary  to  life,  but  an  abstract  system  of  men- 
suration as  well,  is  keeping  our  feet  on  the  groimd  pretty  consist- 
ently. There  is  something  typically  Anglo-Saxon  about  deriving 
our  system  of  measures  from  the  size  of  oxen  and  the  tillage  of 
the  soil,  just  as  the  logical  and  scientific  mind  of  the  Gaul  is 
seen  in  his  taking  the  mathematically  determined  circumference 
of  the  earth  as  his  unit  of  measurement. 

This  matter  of  the  si)acing  of  the  crucks  to  form  baj's  in  these 
early  stables  is  of  interest  because  the  architectural  influence  of 
the  ox  persists  long  after  the  time  when  the  Englishman's  house 
was  not  only  his  castle  but  his  stable  as  well.  Even  when  this 
primitive  arrangement  was  outgroAVTi  and  the  man  separated 
from  his  beast,  the  old  sixteen-foot  spacing  of  the  baj's  continued 
in  the  great  halls  of  the  nobility  and  gentry,  even  into  the  large 
and  luxurious  manors  which  sprang  up  all  over  the  land  during 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  Tudor  Period 


A  ('ottii);<-' lit  IlrtluTiii);ti>n,  lyCicosliTsliirc,  wliii  li  is  |>.irtu  iil.trl\   iiitiTisliu^; 
Ntirviviil  (if  till-  ciirlk-st  form  of  tiiiilM-r  coiistnictiuii 


ENGLISH   DOMESTIC    ARCHITECTURE         5 

—  the  hej'day  of  the  building  arts  in  England.  At  a  time  when 
your  carpenter  would  have  scratched  his  head  in  vain  if  asked 
why  he  si)aced  his  bays  this  particular  width,  it  had  passed  into  a 
building  tradition  and  become  one  of  the  rule-of-thumb  methods 
of  laying  out  a  building.  This  curious  detail  only  disappears 
when  the  unaffected  indigenous  Anglo- Saxon  method  of  building 
was  itself  crushed  out  of  existence  forever  by  the  superimposi- 
tion  of  the  alien  style  from  Italy  which  had  been  making  its  influ- 
ence felt  from  its  first  appearance  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
down  to  its  complete  ascendancy  at  the  hands  of  Inigo  Jones 
in  the  earlj'  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Up  to  the  time  of 
the  appearance  of  this  exotic  fashion  the  cause  of  native  art  had 
marched  on  in  an  uninterrupted  course,  having  a  natural,  logical 
development,  keeping  pace  with  the  advancing  civilization  and 
solving  its  new  problems  as  they  arose,  in  the  light  of  the  accu- 
mulated experience  inherited  from  past  ages. 

But  to  return  to  our  building,  half  house,  half  barn  and  stable, 
with  its  sixteen-foot  bays.  In  the  larger  ones  the  cattle  stood 
down  either  side  for  more  than  half  the  length,  facing  out,  as  one 
sees  them  to-day  in  our  New  England  barns.  In  the  middle  near 
the  end,  and  blocking  up  the  aisle,  was  the  fireplace,  and  behind 
that  the  master's  rooms,  the  "  bower  "  and  often  another  room 
or  two.  For  a  long  time  the  "  fireplace  "  was  that  and  nothing 
more,  merely  a  s})ot  in  the  centre  of  the  aisle  where  the  fire 
which  served  for  heat  and  where  all  the  cooking  was  done,  blazed 
away  on  a  few  flat  stones  innocent  of  any  such  effete  contrivance 
as  back,  sides  or  flue.  To  be  sure,  a  hole  in  the  roof  was  made 
as  a  concession  to  the  smoke,  but  it  was  expected  to  find  it  un- 
assisted, which,  unless  smoke  has  changed  its  habits,  one  may 
believe  it  did  in  a  somewhat  leisurely  and  roundabout  fashion. 
Chimneys,  in  the  sense  we  now  understand  the  word,  were  hardly 
known  in  England  until  the  fourteenth  century.  Even  the 
larger  halls  and  manors  iiad  their  fires  in  the  centre  of  the  room 
and  allowed  the  smoke  to  find  its  way  out  througli  an  opening 
in  the  roof,  which  was  when  necessary  guarded  against  the  en- 


6  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

trance  of  the  weather  bj^  lomTes.  Later  the  fires  were  built 
against  the  stone  walls  of  the  room  and  covered  by  a  great  pro- 
jecting hood,  sometimes  of  stone,  sometimes  of  metal,  and  often 
of  "  daub  "  or  mud  plaster  on  wickerwork.  This  collected  the 
smoke  which  was  carried  off  by  a  flue  set  against  the  wall  and 
running  up  through  the  roof.  This  flue  was  built  of  the  same 
materials,  and  undoubtedly  one  of  the  reasons  why  so  few  traces 
of  flues  in  the  old  buildings  are  found  is  because  of  their  con- 
struction of  such  inflanmiable  material.  Laws  were  finally 
passed  forbidding  flues  to  be  built  having  any  wood  about 
them. 

Up  to  this  point  the  building  is  all  roof,  or  at  least  wall  and 
roof  are  one,  whichever  we  choose  to  call  it,  but  as  skill  in  building 
increased  and  the  demands  were  for  something  more  elaborate,  it 
was  easy  to  put  a  wall  under  this  roof  and  raise  it  into  the  air 
and  th\is  gain  an  attic  (Fig.  2),  also  to  add  a  shed  roof  on  either 
side  parallel  to  the  centre  aisle  like  the  transepts  of  a  basilican 
church,  and  so  gain  in  width  as  well. 

The  servants  slept  in  lofts  over  the  cattle,  the  men  on  one  side, 
the  maids  on  the  other.  In  such  an  intimate  gathering  of  man  and 
beast  under  one  roof  the  all-pervading  wood  smoke  must  have 
been  a  real  blessing,  serving  as  it  undoubtedly  did  in  a  great 
measure  as  a  deodorizer  and  insecticide. 

Even  after  the  cattle  had  been  given  a  building  to  themselves 
and  the  lords  of  the  manor  had  begun  to  live  with  some  pomp  and 
circumstance  in  their  own  houses,  the  servants  of  both  sexes  slept 
on  the  floor  of  the  great  hall  of  the  manor,  which  was  the  dining- 
room  and  general  meeting-place  during  the  day.  This  promis- 
cuity was  the  cause  of  much  ribald  wit  in  the  song  and  story  of 
the  Middle  Ages. 

While  for  the  purpose  of  planning  our  buildings  to-day  it  is 
perhaps  of  little  practical  assistance  to  trace  the  history  of  Eng- 
lish house  planning,  it  is  of  some  interest  to  the  student  of  domes- 
tic architecture  to  follow  the  development  of  the  plan  and  note 
how  each  step  is  in  answer  to  some  developed  need,  and  to  fulfil 


ENGLISH   DOMESTIC    ARCHITECTURE         7 

and  meet  some  condition  that  has  arisen.  As  tliis  logical  and  in- 
evitable growth  and  change  are  the  blood  and  bones  of  our  archi- 
tectural style,  or  rather  are  the  style,  we  shall  not  arrive  at  a  clear 
and  correct  understanding  of  half-timber  work  as  we  see  it 
to-day  in  England  unless  we  do  look  somewhat  into  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  produced.  While  tliis  will  be  done  more 
fully  elsewhere,  it  should  not  be  uninteresting  or  uninstructive 
to  follow  the  development  of  the  plan  a  little  further  than  the 
half  barn,  half  house  of  the  yeoman  and  franklin,  and  see  how 
their  betters  fared. 

In  the  turbulent  times  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  necessary 
that  every  man's  house  should  be  a  fortress  as  well.  We  see  even 
to-day  the  crags  and  hilltops  of  Euroi)e  capped  with  castles  or 
ruins  of  former  strongholds  which  relied  largely  on  their  inacces- 
sibihty  for  immunity  from  attack.  They  were  usually  built  sur- 
rounding a  courtj'ard,  so  that  in  time  of  siege  the  defenders  might 
have  some  place  to  take  the  air.  When,  however,  we  leave  the 
mountainous  countries  and  come  to  France  and  England  —  flat 
lands  with  no  strategic  height  on  which  to  perch  a  fortress- 
dweUing,  we  find  men  surrounding  their  houses  with  water  in 
lieu  of  precipitous  and  rocky  cliffs,  as  a  means  of  keeping  off  the 
marauder.  The  fosse,  or  moat,  as  we  know  it  in  England,  made 
the  insular  Britain  still  more  insular,  and  gave  him  an  excellent 
substitute  for  the  lofty  perch  of  his  Continental  brother.  Like 
him,  however,  and  for  the  same  reason,  he  keeps  the  courtyard  in 
the  centre. 

As  time  goes  on,  and  a  more  peaceable  era  succeeds  the  earlier 
riotous  conditions,  the  first  movement  toward  the  disarmament 
of  the  house  is  the  knocking  out  of  the  front  side  of  the  rec- 
tangular building  so  that  the  court  is  exposed,  and  the  U-shaped 
building  ai)pcars.  From  the  usual  fact  of  a  small  porch  in  tiie 
centre  of  the  cross  wing,  forming  a  slight  projection  in  plan,  it 
is  more  often  spoken  of  as  the  E  type  of  plan.  The  pretty  theory 
that  this  was  an  architectural  compliment  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
in  whose  reign  many  houses  of  this  sort  first  appeared,  will  not 


8  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

stand  the  test  of  historic  research,  and  a  staple  in  matter-of-fact 
evohition  can  hardly  be  turned  to  such  sycophantic  account. 

The  corners  of  the  typical  old  rectangle  often  ^vere  marked 
hy  towers  which  remained  to  accent  the  ends  of  the  U  when  the 
front  side  of  the  rectangle  was  removed.  Now  the  sides  of  the 
U,  or  wings  of  the  house,  disappear,  or  at  least  give  place  to  a 
mere  fence  or  wall,  and  the  towers  remain  standing  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  house,  while  in  the  effete  times  of  long-continued 
I^eace  they  became  merely  garden  or  tool  houses.  To  complete 
the  dwindling  of  the  old  pile,  the  towers  finally  follow  the  rest, 
and  we  have  nothing  but  a  slender  fence  to  mark  where  the  em- 
battled walls  once  stood.  Thus  we  shear  our  castle  till  there  is 
left  but  a  simple  home  with  an  enfenced  yard  in  front;  and  it  is 
this  memory  of  medieval  usage  that  our  forefathers  brought  to 
this  country  in  the  fenced  and  gate-posted  front  yards  of  the 
Colonial  dwellings  which  we  see  still  standing,  up  and  down  the 
Atlantic  seaboard. 

This  then,  in  brief,  is  the  typical  course  taken  by  the  cottage 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  castle  on  the  other,  down  through  the 
^liddle  Ages  in  England,  as  they  were  acted  upon  by  Time  with 
his  train  of  attendant  circumstance,  all  the  products  of  a  changing 
condition  of  men  and  things.  Responding  truly  to  the  logic  of 
events  it  continued,  by  the  force  of  such  adaptation,  to  keep  ahve 
and  to  be  a  growing,  living  organism,  until  fashion  roughly  super- 
ceded it  with  an  imported  alien  style. 


Tin-  jjiitfw.iy  ot'St.  Jiiliii's  Ilos|)iliil,  Canterbury       slii>wiii(;  llif  sliirilv  anliiU-iturc 
that  was  produced  witliinil  striviu);  aftiT  pictiirfsqMfiii-.ss 


'■V 


X 


'The  Half-timber  House  in  England 


Now  let  us  suppose  that  a  small  but  prosperous  farmer  of 
the  year  loOO  wishes  to  build  a  comfortable  house  for  him- 
self and  his  family  somewhere  in  the  south  of  England. 
He  will  scorn  the  idea  of  admitting  cattle  under  the  same  roof, 
as  his  forefathers  did,  and  is  able  to  afford  a  house  of  some  com- 
fort, even  luxury.  He  will  have  a  large  room  for  hving  and  eat- 
ing, with  great  fireplace  and  ingle,  window-seat  and  row  of  glazed 
and  leaded  windows,  a  low,  heavily  beamed  ceiling  and  a  floor  of 
tile  or  flags. 

In  the  old  work  the  firejjlaces,  after  they  had  retreated  from 
the  middle  of  the  floor  in  the  fourteenth  century  and  backed  up 
against  the  wall,  adopted  the  luxury  of  a  flue  to  collect  and  guide 
the  smoke  in  a  straight  and  narrow  way  out  of  the  room  and 
house.  Thej^  were  big  honest  affairs,  bespeaking  plenty  of  dry 
split  logs  in  the  shed;  glorious  great  smoked  caverns,  which  were 
kitchen  range,  hot-water  boiler  and  heating  system  all  in  one  and 
the  centre  and  heart  of  the  house  as  they  deserved  to  be.  There 
is  nothing  more  pleasant,  wholesome  and  hearty  than  the  way  in 
which  in  Sf)ng  and  story,  art  and  history,  the  English  "  hearth  " 
and  "  home  "  are  linked  together.  'J'he  chimney  corner  was  the 
lounging-room,  library,  study,  and  smoking-room,  and  the  history 
of  English  house-planning  swings  about  this  as  a  pivot.  It  is  the 
anchor  of  the  whole. 

The  farmer  will  have  an  entry-way  and  stairs  near  the  centre; 
buttery,  kitchen  and  pantries  to  one  side.  On  the  second  floor, 
under  the  roof,  he  will  have  bedrooms  with  their  windows  close 
under  the  eaves,  or  higher,  so  that  the  eaves  must  sweep  up  over 
them.  The  hall  or  corridor  from  which  bedrooms  may  lead  was 
an  idea  tliat  waited  long  before  it  came  crashing  into  tlie  mind 
of  some  thoughtful  pUuuier  —  one  of  those  simple  expedients  that 


10 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 


it  takes  a  great  man  to  discover  and  for  the  lack  of  which  all  sorts 
of  inconveniences  in  social  intercourse  were  endured,  and  human 
progress  in  social  adjustment  itself  held  back.  The  inventor 
of  the  corridor  deserves  a  statue  as  much  as  does  Eli  Whitney  or 
James  Watt,  instead  of  filling  an  unknown  grave.  It  was  not 
only  the  humble  farmer  who  must  pass  through  some  one  else's 
room  to  get  out  of  his  own  in  those  days,  but  lords  in  their  castles 


The  chimney-comer  was  from  the  first  the  centre  and  heart  of  the  English  Home 

and  kings  in  their  palaces  put  up  with  having  their  suites  of  rooms 
turned  into  passageways.  It  is  the  same  in  France,  Germany 
and  Italy.  We  find  sumptuous  suites  of  rooms  in  great  houses, 
but  all  strung  together  in  a  way  that  the  modern  flat -hunting 
yomig  couple  would  pronounce  "  impossible."  That  it  was  felt 
to  be  a  great  inconvenience  is  shown  by  the  clumsy  expedient,  in 
many  of  the  old  houses,  of  having  a  number  of  staircases  both 
inside  and  out  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  dignified  ladder  by  which  one 
might  leave  his  bedroom  without  embarrassing  his  neighbors. 


THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE    IN   EXGLAXD      11 

However,  our  canny  farmer  at  least  puts  this  inconvenience  to 
some  practical  use,  for  he  and  his  gudewife  take  for  themselves 
the  room  at  the  head  of  the  stairs,  with  maids  on  one  side  and  the 
men  on  the  other,  so  that  he  commands  the  junction,  and  can  keep 
strict  watch  of  the  comings  and  goings. 

His  first  floor  will  be  perhaps  of  earth,  not  even  stopping 
to  remove  the  top  loam,  and  this  will  pack  down  and  make  a  sur- 
face not  too  smooth,  to  be  sure,  and  certainly  none  too  clean.  If 
the  ground  should  prove  to  be  damp  he  will  have  a  foul  place  to 
live  in,  at  least  according  to  modern  notions.  It  is  certainly  a  long 
way  from  waxed  oak,  and  a  vaciumi  cleaner.  If  he  wishes  some- 
thing more  pretentious  he  will  have  for  flooring  uncut  stone  laid 
without  mortar  and  fitted  together  as  closely  as  possible. 

For  the  second  floor  he  must  needs  use  boards  to  span  the 
joists,  and  he  will  use  wide  oak  ones;  planks  they  migiit  more 
properly  be  called,  from  their  thickness.  First  tliick  reeds  will 
be  laid  across  the  joists,  then  the  boards  on  top  nailed  down 
through  the  reeds.  Xow  he  can  plaster  the  ceiling  between  the 
joists,  the  reeds  forming  the  lath,  and  he  will  have  not  only  a 
tight  floor  but  one  with  some  pretense  to  being  sound-proof. 
In  some  districts  it  has  been  found  that  they  have  gone  one  step 
further  and  left  off  the  board  flooring,  and,  instead,  covered  the 
reeds  as  they  lay  across  the  joists,  above  and  below,  thoroughly 
embedding  tliem  in  a  four-inch  or  five-inch  sheet  of  plaster  that 
attains  the  hardness  of  cement.  We  thus  see  our  ferro-concrete 
methods  anticipated  by  half  a  millenary,  for  if  the  reeds  were 
iron  rods  we  should  have  the  very  latest  American  invention  in 
reinforced  fireproof  flooring. 

The  roof  he  will  probably  cover  with  thatch  a  foot  or  two  in 
thickness,  made  of  rye  straw,  and  if  he  is  afraid  of  fire  he  may 
give  it  a  coat  of  whitewash,  the  lime  affording  considerable  pro- 
tection against  the  flames.  Fire  is  the  great  enemy  of  thatch,  for 
in  a  prolonged  drought  the  straw  becomes  like  tinder  and  shrinks 
away  from  the  dirt,  moss,  etc.,  which  perforce  are  present,  form- 
ing a  sort  of  tinder,  and  rendering  it  an  even  more  easy  prey  to 


12  THE    HALF-Ti:\IBER    HOUSE 

fire.  At  an  early  period  in  London  it  was  one  of  the  building  laws 
that  all  thatch  must  be  kept  whitewashed,  and  it  became  so  com- 
mon throughout  England  that  the  villages  witli  their  white  roofs 
sparkling  in  the  sun  must  have  presented  a  very  different  jiicture 
from  ^vhat  we  see  to-day  in  the  hamlets  where  thatch  is  still  to  be 
found. 

Let  us  suppose,  however,  that  the  farmer  does  not  wish  to  use 
thatch  for  the  roof.  He  may  use  tile  made  bj"^  hand,  of  an  excel- 
lent quality  and  burnt  to  a  pleasant  red  of  varying  shades.  In 
the  districts  where  the  proper  clays  were  to  be  foimd,  tile  was  a 
very  popular  method  of  covering  not  only  roofs  but  walls.  Often 
when  the  oak  beams  of  a  half-timber  house  had  so  shrunk  or  rotted 
from  the  effects  of  age  and  weather  that  the  filling  had  disinte- 
grated and  the  whole  structure  was  no  longer  proof  against  wind 
and  weather,  instead  of  repairing  along  the  same  lines,  which 
would  be  a  difficult  thing  to  do,  they  hung  the  walls  with  tile,  and 
many  a  Kent  and  Surrey  tile-covered  farmhouse  of  to-day  is 
really  an  old  half-timber  building  in  a  new  dress.  These  tile 
were,  of  course,  hand-made,  and  as  a  consequence  possessed  a  cer- 
tain unevenness  of  texture,  which  when  added  to  the  fact  that  the 
hanging  holes  were  far  from  being  punched  with  mathematical 
exactness,  gave  the  wall  on  which  they  were  hung  a  softness  of 
siu'face  which  was  most  jileasing,  accidental  and  fortuitous  though 
it  was.  These  tile  were  thicker  than  those  we  get  to-day,  and,  as 
was  to  be  expected  along  with  the  other  imperfect  methods  of 
manufacture,  came  in  a  great  variety  of  color,  produced  by  the 
uneven  burning  in  the  kiln.  The  tile  were  often  cut  with  a 
rounded  or  curved  butt,  so  that  the  builders  were  fond  of  getting 
variety  by  laying  first  several  rows  of  the  cur\^ed,  and  then  several 
rows  of  straight  ends.  These  tile,  like  the  slate,  were  hung  with 
wooden  pins  which  of  course  in  time  rotted  and  gave  way, 
but  could  be  easily  replaced,  and  in  a  country  where  there  was 
no  severe  frost  or  heavy  snowfall,  they  were  i)erfectly  suited  to 
their  purpose. 

If,  however,  the  builder  has  an  objection  to  tile,  he  may,  if  he 


-^ 


All  luliniralili'  rxaiiipli'  of  the  cliiirrn  of  soft  tcxturo  tliiit  rrsultcil  in  thi"  old  wi>rk 
from  the  fart  that  it  was  not  built  with  inatheiiiatical  I'xaitncss 


The  sticks  are  vertical  in  the  earlier  work  and  rather  close  together,  there 
being  about  as  much  plaster  showing  as  wood 


THE   HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE   IN   ENGLAND      13 

happens  to  live  in  the  right  district,  cover  his  roofs  with  slate  or 
other  flat  stone,  rouglily  split,  heavy  but  durable,  defying  fire  and 
frost,  and  presenting  a  fine,  substantial  appearance.  To  be  sure 
he  must  make  the  rafters  strong  and  tie  thcni  well,  for  this  roof 
will  never  sleep,  but  its  constant  pressure  will  need  stout  work 
below  to  keep  it  in  the  air.  However,  there  will  be  no  lack  of 
heavy  timber  of  solid  oak.  Two-by-four-inch  spruce  studs  are  an 
invention  of  a  more  architecturally  anaemic  age.  The  pitch  of 
the  roof  was  determined  empirically  by  striking  a  medium  be- 
tween a  flatness  that  threw  the  great  weight  of  the  stone  full  on 
the  rafters  and  called  for  great  strength  in  them,  and  the  steeper 
roof  that  caused  the  stones  to  drag  heavily  on  their  wooden  pins 
and  in  time  i)ull  loose  and  fall  to  the  ground.  As  a  result  of  these 
conflicting  problems  we  usually  find  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  the 
roofs  which  are,  or  were  meant  to  be,  covered  with  stone  are 
flatter  than  the  tile  or  thatch  roofs. 

The  stone  was  laid  over  a  layer  of  straw.  The  ridge  was 
formed  either  with  a  saddle  board  of  rolled  lead,  or  often  with 
a  continuous  row  of  overlapping  half-roll  tiles  embedded  in 
nu)rtar.  The  use  of  flashing  (thin  sheet  metal  used  to  make 
tight  the  edges  and  joints  with  chimneys,  end  walls,  etc.)  is 
really  a  confession  of  weakness,  and  the  old  builders  got  along 
Avith  surprisingly  little  of  it. 

Now  we  have  our  roof  and  floors;  let  us  consider  what  kind  of 
wall  he  will  have  to  hold  them  up.  There  is  little  building  stone 
at  hand,  and  he  certainly  will  not  propose  to  bring  material  of 
one  sort  from  a  distance  when  he  has  another  perfectly  good  sort 
at  hand.  IJrick  is  not  yet  in  common  use  and  not  well  understood, 
but  what  he  does  have  in  abundance  is  tunber.  Tlie  hills  are  cov- 
ered witli  fine  oak  trees,  than  which  no  finer  building  wood  has 
ever  existed.  Here  it  is,  ready  to  hand,  and  here  are  the  axes 
and  broad-axes  and  men  who  have  the  proper  handling  of  them  as 
an  inheritance  from  untold  generations.  If  they  are  not  born 
with  an  ax  in  their  hands,  one  finds  itself  there  very  shortly.  So 
then  he  will  begin  to  chop;  now  it  does  not  take  many  hours  with 


14  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

an  ax,  squaring  up  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  to  learn  that  it  is  easier 
to  make  one's  timbers  large  than  small.  It  is  as  much,  if  not  more, 
bother  to  get  out  a  thin  plank,  than  it  is  a  great  stick;  and  so  he 
will  save  time  and  use  the  big  timbers.  ^Vith  their  great  size  and 
strength  he  may  well  space  them  some  distance  apart,  and  fill  in 
between  with  something  or  other  not  so  hard  to  make  as  planks. 
For  this  purpose  he  will  use  a  mortar  or  "  daub  "  made  of  lime 
and  straw,  or  clay  and  twigs,  or  anything  that  will  stick  and 
harden,  and  reasonably  resist  the  weather,  which  is  not  rigorous 
or  one  that  makes  great  demands  on  building  materials.  As  a 
groundwork  for  lathing  for  this  plaster  he  will  weave  willow  twigs 
together  and  make  a  groove  in  the  sides  of  his  timber  to  take 


ROU<iH     l-AT 


Woven  willow  twigs,  engaging  in  grooves  in  the  timber,  form  a 
support  for  the  plaster 

the  ends  and  make  a  tighter  bond  between  the  filling  and  the 
beams,  so  that  if  the  timber  does  shrink  away  there  will  not  be  an 
open  crack  straight  through  the  wall.  Then  if  he  plasters  the 
inside  of  the  wall  all  over  he  will  be  as  snug  as  possible.  He  may 
make  it  a  more  substantial  wall  by  using  as  a  filling  brickbats, 
small  stones  or  what-not,  and  covering  the  whole  with  plaster. 

In  place  of  the  plaster  filling  we  sometimes  find  brick  laid  up 
in  a  herringbone  pattern,  set  in  mortar  and  left  to  show  their  red 
surfaces  framed  between  the  gray  timbers. 

For  the  corner  posts  a  baulk  was  used,  cut  near  the  foot  of 
the  tree  to  get  the  beginning  of  the  sweeping  curve  where  it  runs 
out  into  the  roots.  These  sticks  were  turned  upside  down  and  the 
curved  end  formed  the  bracket  to  support  the  girt  for  the  over- 
hanging second  story,  wliile  the  crooked  branches  were  used  for 
the  curved  struts  and  braces.  An  old  ^vriter,  Harrison,  says, 
"  No  oke  can  grow  so  crooked  but  it  falleth  out  to  some  use."    It 


/iczy-. 


All  interestint;  exninplf  sliowinn  Ihr  iisr  <>t  hriik  lilliii);  ImIwicii  tlu'  tinilM-rs, 

laid  liorizoiitally.      Where  hriek  whs  employed  it  wiis  iisii/illy 

Inid  ill  n  din^onal  pattern 


•=  _2  i;  c 


—  s 

■=  k  ■ 


I 


■  I 


?^  "S 


THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE    IN    ENGLAND      15 

is  not  quite  clear  why  this  almost  universal  overhang  was  adopted 
for  the  upper  stories,  at  least  in  the  country  districts.  In  the 
cities  these  successive  overhangs  as  the  stories  were  added  one 
above  another  formed  an  excellent  shelter  from  the  rain  for  the 


Pliiiiilip 


Brick  was   frequently  used  as  the  material   for  filling  in   between   the 
timbers,  laid  up  in  a  variety  of  patterns 

shop  front  on  the  street,  and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  houses  on 
the  opposite  sides  of  city  streets  to  bow  gravely  to  each  other  in 
this  way  until  they  approached  so  near  that  those  in  the  attic  win- 
dows could  shake  hands  across  the  street. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  these  offsets  gained  for  the  framework 
a  certain  amount  of  stiffness,  and  it  may  have  been  for  this  reason 
that  they  were  adojited;    whatever  the  reason,  the  introduction 


16  THE    HALF-TI»IBER    HOUSE 

into  the  design  of  this  horizontal  band  of  shadow  and  the  very 
marked  division  of  the  stories  which  it  represents,  added  a  most 
pleasing  feature  to  the  whole  whether  or  not  introduced  with  that 
idea.  Our  ])leasure  is  largely  due,  no  doubt,  to  its  engaging  can- 
dor in  letting  us  into  the  secrets  of  its  interior  arrangement  to 
that  extent. 

This  then  is  the  original  method  of  making  these  walls,  per- 
fectly logical,  following  the  hues  of  least  resistance,  and  utilizing 
what  comes  to  hand.  It  is  like  all  good  arcliitecture  in  that  it  is 
the  by-product  of  honest  building. 

Thus  we  have  the  result  of  our  farmer's  work  in  "  black-and- 
white  "  walls  of  "  half-timber."  The  sticks  are  vertical  in  the 
earlier  work  and  close  together,  there  being  about  as  much  plaster 
showing  as  wood.  In  the  later  work,  where  the  timbers  are  placed 
further  apart,  we  have  more  "  white  "  and  less  "  black,"  and  then, 
as  they  became  more  facile,  the  builders  amused  themselves  with 
arranging  the  upright  timbers  and  sticks  to  form  diverse  and  in- 
genious patterns,  so  that  we  get  the  quatrefoil,  cusps,  diamonds 
with  concave  sides,  and  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  arrange- 
ment, in  addition  to  the  more  sober  placing  of  the  sticks.  These 
timbers  are  all  dowelled,  the  uprights  into  the  sills  and  the  hori- 
zontal pieces  into  the  uprights,  and  pinned  with  oak  pins,  the  ends 
of  which  are  left  projecting  a  half -inch  or  so,  that  they  may  be 
still  further  driven  in  should  the  joints  loosen  and  need  to  be 
drawn  tighter  together.  In  fact  the  poorer  class  of  work,  the 
jerry-building  of  the  time,  is  described  as  "  without  augur  holes." 
In  some  of  the  work  the  plaster  is  kept  flush  with  the  face  of  the 
timber  outside,  but  as  this  makes  the  slightest  crack  between  the 
two  much  in  evidence,  a  sinking  of  the  plaster  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
or  so  back  of  the  face  not  only  made  this  less  prominent  but  gave 
the  whole  surface  more  variety  and  a  more  solid  and  rugged  ajj- 
pearance.  The  feeling  of  texture  in  this  old  work  is  of  course 
enormously  enhanced  by  the  rough  surfaces  of  the  timber  as  it 
comes  from  the  ax,  for  smooth  as  they  must  have  seemed  to  the 
ax  man,  they  were  nothing  as  compared  to  the  product  of  the  buzz 


riu-  tiiiilx  rs  wtrr  all  iluWi'lliil  Ut^ttlur  .iiul  luld  \>\   u.ik  pins,  [\iv  ciuls  >*(  wliuh 
ari"  hrrc  stfii  project  in^ 


>^ 


The  builders  soon  broke  away  from  the  use  of  vertical  timbers  alone,  introducing 
diverse  and  ingenious  patterns  such  as  the  quatrefoil  which  is  seen  here 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE    IN   ENGLAND      17 

saw.  This,  with  the  varying  widths  of  these  timber  faces  and  a 
certain  amount  of  crookedness  in  the  sticks  themselves,  together 
with  the  apparent  unconcern  of  those  having  the  spacing  in 
charge,  gives  the  whole  wall  a  very  soft  and  gracious  presence. 
For  us  as  we  see  it  to-day  this  is  all  accentuated  by  the  heavy  hand 
of  age  and  accompanying  decay,  which  have  still  further  softened 
the  lines  and  blunted  the  angles,  while  Nature  has  crept  up 
around  the  base,  leaving  her  mark  in  every  crannj'.  She  has  laid 
on  her  colors  with  the  wind  and  rain,  until  the  whole  with  its  tim- 
ber and  thatch  seems  almost  to  have  reverted  to  the  vegetable 
Idngdom  and  become  some  new  species  of  giant  plant. 

The  idea  that  these  peojjle  were  actuated  in  their  work  only 
by  the  desire  to  build  tight,  warm  and  cheap  shelters,  with  little 
regard  for  beauty,  cannot  be  entertained  for  a  moment  when  we 
see  the  amount  of  carving  on  molding,  barge-boards  and  wherever 
there  was  a  chance  for  enrichment;  clearly  indicating  their  love 
of  beauty,  their  pride  in  their  work,  and  their  willingness  to  take 
the  time  and  expense  to  gi'atify  it. 

The  details  of  doors,  with  their  nailheads  and  strap  hinges, 
the  windows  with  their  patterned  bars  of  lead,  the  giant  chimneys 
bursting  into  flower  at  the  top,  the  generous  fireplaces,  cunningly 
jointed  paneling,  and  the  accompanying  details  which  these 
builders  wrought,  guided  and  directed  in  the  struggle  for  beauty 
by  an  imagination  which  took  its  color  from  the  vigorous,  vital, 
struggling  age  in  which  it  found  itself,  are  worthy  of  more  than 
a  passing  glance. 

We  will  now  consider  whether  this  is  not  a  style  of  architecture 
that  is  most  facile  and  flexible,  and  that  lends  itself  most  grace- 
fully to  the  accommodation  of  our  present-day  needs. 


Is  the  Half -timber  Style  Suited  to  our 
Needs   To-day  P 


I  FEAR  that  most  members  of  the  architectural  profession  will 
dissent  with  some  heat   from  the  obsei'vation   of  the  mild 

Thoreau  that  "  There  is  some  of  the  same  fitness  in  a  man's 
building  his  own  house  that  there  is  in  a  bird's  building  its  own 
nest."  This  sounds  well  enough  until  we  think  of  some  of  the 
stock-jobbers  whom  we  know,  having  such  potentially  dangerous 
things  as  hanmier  and  nails  thrust  into  their  hands  and  being 
sent  forth  to  build  their  nests.  True,  as  Thoreau  continues, 
"  Who  knows  but  if  men  constructed  their  own  dwellings  with 
their  own  hands,  and  provided  food  for  themselves  honestly 
enough,  the  poetic  faculty  would  be  universally  developed,  as 
birds  universall}'  sing  when  they  are  so  engaged."  It  is  a  pretty 
picture,  surely,  of  these  worthy  citizens  balancing  up  the  dizzy 
ladder  with  hods  on  their  shoulders  and  madrigals  on  their  lips, 
but  I  fear  that  even  the  "  universal  development  of  the  poetic 
faculty  "  is  too  high  a  price  for  us  to  pay.  Wliile  every  bird  is 
born  an  architect,  no  man  is. 

If,  then,  it  is  a  difficult,  slow  and  painful  task  to  learn  to  build 
properly,  if  it  requires  countless  experiments  with  their  attend- 
ant failures  to  learn  to  use  rightly,  wisely  and  economically  the 
material  at  hand  with  the  tools  at  hand,  the  final  result  thus 
arrived  at  must  give  it  ahnost  the  force  and  dignity  of  a  law  of 
nature.  When  we  have  followed  the  thread  of  common  sense  in 
and  out  and  up  and  down  wherever  it  has  led  us,  without  falter- 
ing or  evasion,  we  may  expect  to  come  out  at  last  into  the  light 
and  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  Architecture. 

For  it  must  be  understood  that  this  reflection  of  the  prevailing 
civilization,  this  mirror  of  the  customs,  manners,  lunitations  and 


"Stonecrnlt."  a  inotlrni  Kn^Iish  housi*  in  which  the  traclilioiis  of  tiinlurin^  aiui 
hold  rhiTiiiii'v  tn-atmrnt  art*  wrti  ohsrrvcd 


tS 


a. 
a. 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    STYLE  19 

environment  of  a  race,  showing  the  slow,  painful  process  of  the 
growth  and  development  of  a  people,  is  what  goes  to  the  making 
of,  and  has  as  a  result,  what  we  call  a  "  style  "  of  architecture. 
And  even  when  it  becomes  no  longer  possible  truthfully  to  reflect 
the  customs,  requirements,  and  desires  of  a  people  in  the  old  in- 
herited forms  —  even  then  we  may  not  talk  of  a  new  style,  but 
rather  of  modifications  and  adjustments  of  the  present  one,  the 
whole  problem  being  one  of  growth,  both  in  wants  and  in  their 
fulfillment. 

It  is  as  impossible  for  a  people  to  repudiate  its  architecture 
as  it  would  be  to  deny  its  literature.  A  people's  architecture  fits 
them  and  no  one  else  can  wear  it.  We  may  see  much  to  admire 
in  others  but  only  our  own  is  flesh  of  our  flesh.  The  particular 
style  that  tee  have  been  born  into,  developed  by  our  fathers 
through  the  centuries,  keeping  pace  with  the  slow,  painful  prog- 
ress of  the  race,  and  always  a  true  index  of  its  contemporarj'^ 
condition;  a  perfect,  inarticulate  measure  of  its  culture  and 
refinement;  this  style,  tliis  growing  embodiment  in  stone  of  a 
people's  dreams  and  idealism,  this  for  us  is  the  Gothic  style  of 
England. 

The  Georgian  style,  which  was  brouglit  to  this  country  and 
flourished  here  with  some  modifications  under  the  name  of  "  Colo- 
nial "  or,  as  the  redundant  phrase  has  it,  "  Old  Colonial,"  had 
nothing  Georgian  about  it  unless  it  be  that  both  the  arcloitecture 
and  the  dynasty  were  foreign,  for  it  was  not  an  indigenous  style 
of  building  like  the  other.  It  was  an  imported  fasliion,  an  alien 
style,  as  little  at  home  in  catering  to  British  institutions  as  we 
might  expect  such  a  typically  Latin  ])ro(luct  to  be.  It  was  noth- 
ing but  the  classic  architecture  of  old  Rome  revived  in  Xortli  Italy 
in  the  fifteenth  century  and  brought  into  England  by  tlie  devious 
way  of  France  and  Holland,  and  showing  the  influence  of  the 
countries  through  which  it  had  passed  on  its  journey.  And  even 
if  we  admit  that  long  custom  has  served  to  imbue  these  bor- 
rowed forms  with  sometliing  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  temperament, 
we  have  still  the  inherent  unsuitableness  of  what  is  an  essen- 


20  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

tiallv  monumental  style  of  architecture  set  to  serve  intimate  and 
domestic  uses.  Its  simplicity  and  dignity  are  all  very  well,  but 
they  are  bound  to  a  tyrannical  synmietry,  rigid,  cold  and  immut- 
able. We  all  know  the  work  as  it  was  brought  over  and  done  in 
the  Colonies  —  charming,  but  a  little  frigid,  dignified  but  hardly 
intimate,  chaste  but  often  timid,  too  often  described  as  simple 
by  its  admirers  when  stuj)id  would  be  the  better  word :  its  vocabu- 
lary small  if  select,  its  canons  fixed  and  rigid,  so  that  its  range 
of  effects  is  of  necessity  very  limited. 

We  all  know  the  Colonial  house  —  the  front  door  in  the  centre 
flanked  on  either  side  by  the  paired  windows  above  and  below, 
each  wmdow  the  exact  size  of  every  other.  It  may  be  there  is 
a  guest  room  in  one  corner  and  a  bathroom  in  the  other,  but  such 
is  not  api^arent  on  the  surface.  We  might  have  liked  to  have, 
for  comfort  and  convenience,  three  windows  on  one  side,  and 
one  on  the  other,  some  higher  or  some  smaller,  but  it  would  be 
heresy  to  take  such  liberties  with  this  austere  front.  Like  the 
unluckj'  traveler  in  the  bed  of  Procrustes,  the  poor  plan  is  made 
to  fit  the  elevations  by  brute  force,  either  by  stretching  or  lop- 
ping off. 

Now,  setting  the  matter  of  stjde  aside  for  the  moment,  it  is 
an  architectural  maxim  as  apjilicable  to  a  dog  kennel  as  to  a 
palace,  since  men  first  piled  one  stone  on  another,  that  the  eleva- 
tions of  a  building  shall  express,  as  best  may  be,  the  plan  —  shall 
give  some  inkling  not  only  of  what  are  m  a  general  way  the 
uses  of  the  building,  but,  further  than  tliis,  shall  indicate  the  uses 
of  the  various  parts  of  that  building  as  seen  from  without.  Let 
us  suppose,  for  example,  that  we  find  ourselves  in  the  square  of 
a  strange  village ;  it  is  not  enough  that  we  can  tell  which  building 
is  the  public  librarj',  which  the  fire-engine  house  and  which  the 
to\vn  hall,  for  the  architecture  is  not  vital  or  organic  unless  we  can 
also  tell,  as  we  look  at  them,  where  the  reading-room  of  the  library 
is,  where  in  the  engine  house  the  firemen  sleep  and  where  the 
hose  is  hung,  and  in  the  town  hall  Avhere  the  assembly  room  is 
located.    Of  course  this  cannot  be  carried  into  too  much  detail. 


/)'  I'.T  ,v  It.ili.ll,  Ar<l  il,cts 

A  iiiodtrii  lioubc  in  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia  that  is  well  done  without  obvious  effort 


/.  UuaaiU  I'opt,  Archtltcl 

A  detail  troll)  a  ^ati-  lt>il^<-  on  l.on^  l.slaiiil  \\  lu-rr  the  true  spirit  of 
KiikIisIi  <  nirtsiiiiiiisliip  has  b<eii  revived 


c 


e 

?  c 
s  _e 


.3  -a 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    STYLE  21 

It  would  be  obviously  absurd  to  press  this  point  too  far.  In  gen- 
eral and  in  a  large  way,  however,  it  is  a  valuable  architectural 
truth. 

Now  returning  to  our  house  with  the  sjTnmetrical  Colonial 
front:  how  is  it  possible  for  the  meanest  and  the  most  honored 
rooms  to  be  equally  expressed  on  the  exterior  by  the  same  thing 
—  the  window,  for  instance?  If  a  given  window  is  a  truthful 
expression  of  one  room,  how  can  it  be  of  the  other?  We  obviously 
cannot  expect  such  versatility  from  our  openings.  When  work- 
ing in  the  derivatives  of  tlie  classic  style  as  applied  in  domestic 
work,  not  to  be  able  to  tell  from  the  exterior  of  a  house  the  bath- 
room from  the  parlor,  the  butler's  pantry  from  the  ballroom,  is 
a  basic  defect  of  stjde  that  forces  many  undesirable  comj^romises 
that  would  be  unnecessary  in  a  less  rigid  system.  It  is  not  so 
much  that  the  style  is  inarticulate  as  that  it  knows  so  few  sen- 
tences with  which  to  try  and  express  so  many  ideas.  There  should 
not  be  this  conflict  between  the  plan  and  its  elevations  by  which 
one  must  give  way  to  the  other,  serious  sacrifices  having  to  be 
made  before  the  two  can  be  coaxed  into  joining  hands.  In  tliis 
feud  between  Truth  and  Ilarmon}^  Utility  stands  but  a  sorry 
chance.  The  elevations  must  follow  and  grow  from  the  plan; 
they  shall  express  what  they  shield;  they  are  the  effect  and 
not  the  cause.  Beauty  must  wait  on  Use,  and  is  only  noble  when 
it  serves. 

If,  then,  our  exteriors  will  not  subordinate  themselves,  if  they 
are  not  perfectly  tractable  and  flexible,  it  is  a  weakness,  and  it  is 
this  weakness  in  architectonics  that  we  think  exists  to  a  marked 
extent  in  the  classic  style,  and  one  which  never  appears  so  disas- 
trously as  in  the  manifold  exigencies  of  modern  house-building. 
If  the  entente  cordiale  is  lacking  in  the  Georgian  work  between 
the  plan  and  its  elevations,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  in  this  very 
matter  tliat  the  strength  of  the  true  English  work  of  the  Tudor 
period  lies,  for  the  rambling  timbered  or  plastered  houses  of 
this  time,  by  wholly  ignoring  symmetry,  gain  at  tiie  very  outset 
an  inmiense  freedom.     But  because  synmietry  is  neglected,  we 


22  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

must  not  for  a  moment  assume  that  the  work  is  haphazard  and 
allowed  to  follow  its  owti  devices  without  thought  or  care  for  the 
result.  Balance  and  accent,  variety  and  composition,  are  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  seen,  or  rather  felt,  everywhere  in  these 
buildings. 

The  plan  here  may  fulfil  the  most  extraordinary  requirements, 
may  house  the  most  incongruous  matters  under  one  roof.  China- 
closets  may  come  next  to  chapels,  pantries  under  boudoirs,  yet 
each  have  every  requirement  of  light,  space  and  convenience  ful- 
filled, with  its  proper  and  fitting  exterior  expression.  The 
ground  may  be  level,  sloping  or  broken,  without  embarrassing  us 
in  the  least.  There  is  here  the  best  possible  understanding  be- 
tween the  plan  and  the  elevation  —  the  understanding  that  the 
plan  is  master  and  that  the  other  must  honor  and  obey. 

The  result  in  England,  the  home  of  this  work  and  where  it  is 
seen  at  its  best,  is  those  soft,  beautiful  houses  which  affect  us  by 
their  perfect  repose  and  harmony,  their  feeling  of  rest  and  sim- 
plicitj'  —  no  stress  or  striving  here,  only  peace  and  quiet.  No- 
where are  there  such  homes  as  these.  There  are  others  sur- 
rounded by  grander  scenerj'-  and  more  complicated  landscape  — 
the  restless  blue  of  the  JNIediterranean  may  murmur  at  their  feet, 
snowclad  mountains  and  frowning  precipices  may  stand  guard 
over  chalets  and  farms ;  there  is  a  charm  by  the  sinuous  Danube 
banked  with  vineyard  and  studded  with  mysterious  castles  whose 
storied  past  swathes  them  in  romance;  but  when  the  tired  trav- 
eler, sated  with  the  aggressive  beauty  of  other  lands,  feels  once 
more  the  soft  air  and  views  the  lush  vegetation  of  the  English 
shires  with  their  peaceful,  homely  villages,  he  will  be  ready  for 
their  message  of  peace  and  quiet.  To  know  them  they  must  be 
wooed  in  various  moods  —  when  the  hawthorn  buds  powder  the 
hedges  and  the  blossoms  are  dancing  on  the  trees  and  the  happy 
streams  croon  and  gurgle  to  themselves  under  the  ancient 
bridges ;  or,  in  some  quiet  pool,  throw  back  the  image  of  the  guar- 
dian church;  when  the  sinking  sun  lends  a  coat  of  gold  to  the 
homely  thatch,  or  when  the  great  smoking  chimneys  of  the  cot- 


Harvard  House,  Stratford-oii-Avoii  —  an  unusually  liuf  <'xani|>ii'  nt'  tlic  town  luiuse 
front,  su);i;esting  the  loving  i-arethal  was  fx|)i-niUd  u|><in  tin-  carving 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    STYLE  28 

tages  are  seen  through  the  gaunt,  winter  limbs  —  "  Bare  ruin'd 
choirs,  where  late  the  sweet  birds  sang." 

These  houses  take  their  place  in  the  landscape  more  like  some 
work  of  Nature  than  of  man,  more  as  if  they  had  grown  than 
as  if  they  were  made,  nestling  among  the  trees  and  verdure  like 
the  flower  of  some  larger  plant.  Rules  of  the  books,  precepts  of 
the  schools,  seem  very  artificial,  thin  and  profitless  in  their  pres- 
ence. These  buildings  have  no  acquaintance  with  the  paint  shop 
or  the  planing-mill ;  they  are  offsprings  of  the  soil,  with  their 
brick  and  mortar  from  the  fields,  and  rough-hewn  timbers  dragged 
from  the  forest.  As  a  tree  lacks  sjinmetry  but  possesses  perfect 
balance,  so  do  they.  They  are  not  designed  under  an  artificial 
rule  derived  from  notliing  in  nature.  Neither  does  their  enrich- 
ment of  detail  consist  of  motives  copied  from  those  on  Greek 
temples  invented  for  use  five  hundred  years  before  Christ. 
What  detail  and  ornament  they  have  chosen  to  beautify  and  deck 
themselves  in  is  their  own,  wrought  out  lovingly,  invented  pain- 
fully and  slowly  with  many  slips  and  many  failures  by  the  people 
themselves  —  always  improving  and  bettering  as  they  come  up 
out  of  their  darkness  of  ignorance  and  povertj\  Eloquent  of  a 
people's  history,  such  houses  as  these  are  owned  by  those  who  hve 
in  them,  in  a  very  real  sense. 


The   Charm  of  Old   U^ork  and  How 
We  may   Obtain  It 


LAYING  aside  the  esthetic  point  of  view,  let  us  consider  if 
these  buildings  must  remain  merely  interesting  specimens 
of  the  handicraft  of  a  byegone  age,  or  if  it  is  possible  for 
us  to  use  this  style  of  work  to  serve  our  twentieth  century  needs. 

What  are  we  to  say  to  the  Plain  Business  Man  with  his 
strong  instinctive  suspicion  of  "  Art  "  ?  He  who  says  he  wants 
no  nonsense  about  his  house,  no  millinery  for  hun ;  what  he  wants 
is  something  to  keep  out  the  rain  and  keep  in  the  heat,  plenty 
of  hot  water  and  a  light  cellar. 

Here  is  the  real  architectural  critic  at  last!  —  here  the  great, 
patient,  primal  voice  of  the  World  asking  for  shelter.  This  is  the 
prophet  of  the  marketplace  striving  to  express  the  dim,  atavic 
stirrings  of  his  innermost  being.  Thus  Xoah  spoke  to  his  ship- 
wright ;  so  demanded  Paraoh  on  the  fields  of  Karnak ;  and  Nero 
thus  admonished  the  builders  of  the  Golden  House.  And  when 
Ibn-i-Alimar  stood  on  the  Alhambra  hill  and  pointed  \vith  his 
scimitar  at  the  growing  Generalife  it  was  in  words  like  these 
he  spoke. 

With  our  half-timber  work  we  need  not  flinch  beneath  his 
gaze,  for  it  can  fulfil  all  his  requirements.  Nothing  can  be  more 
practical.  We  can  tell  him,  first,  that  his  work  is  perfectly  suited 
to  our  climate.  The  plaster  makes  a  warmer  house  in  winter  and 
a  cooler  in  smimier  than  can  be  had  with  any  of  the  forms  of 
wood  alone;  it  costs  less  than  brick  or  stone  and,  when  properlj' 
done,  even  over  wooden  studs,  is  very  durable.  There  is  no  cost 
of  up-keep,  and  the  amount  of  painting  or  oiling  is  restricted  to 
the  trim  and  is  negligible.  The  color  and  texture  of  the  plaster 
may  be  varied  considerably  and,  even  when  new,  is  thoroughly 


One  of  the  essentials  of  suivess  in  half-timber  work  is  the  grouping  of  windows 

i-itlicr  than  leavin);  tliini  a.s  Isoliited  units 


A  typical  Lxaiiiple  of  the  smaller  Kii(;lish  maiiDrs.      Nulice  lure  the  ({roiipinjir 

of  till-  windows 


ir—"-" 


It  is  hard  to  .separate  the  architecture  from  its  setti[ig  ajid  from  the  softening 

influences  of  time,  and  estimate  how  much  of  a  composition  like  this 

is  really  a  result  of  forethought 


THE    CHARM    OF    OLD    WORK  25 

charming  and  wonderfully  harmonious  among  the  surrounding 
vegetation. 

As  for  appearance,  one  must  not  expect  to  find  in  the  modern 
work  the  charm  and  fascination  which  so  delight  us  in  the  old 
English  crofts  and  manors,  for  their  charm  is  largely  due  to  age 
and  nature.  It  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  thing  to  judge  archi- 
tecture of  a  byegone  time  per  se  —  that  is,  to  separate  the  archi- 
tecture, the  conscious  design,  entirely  from  its  setting,  and  pass 
judgment  on  it  solely  as  an  artistic  composition,  without  regard 
to  the  accidental  or  casual  in  its  surroundings.  We  must  ignore 
those  caressing  marks  by  which  we  may  know  that  Father  Time 
has  passed  that  way.  This  added  beauty  and  interest  begins 
where  the  architect  left  off;  but  the  latter  is  too  often  given  the 
credit  for  the  beauty  that  is  of  nature  and  not  of  man  —  the  per- 
fect result  that  neither  may  obtain  alone.  The  English  cathe- 
drals —  were  they  so  beautiful,  so  benign,  so  satisfying,  had  they 
such  a  pervading  aura  of  spiritual  peace  when  the  architect  stood 
off  and  viewed  his  finished  work,  their  future  history  unborn  and 
timid  Nature  looking  askance  from  afar,  not  yet  ready  to  run 
up  and  chng  about  the  base  and  storm  the  walls  and  find  a  foot- 
hold in  every  cranny  ?  The  architect's  work  was  done  even  as  we 
see  it  to-day,  but  to  quicken  the  observer's  pulse  something  was 
wanting.  There  was  lacking  the  subtle  human  interest  which 
comes  from  apprenticeship  in  the  service  of  man.  When  Goethe 
spoke  of  Gothic  churclies  as  being  "  petrified  religion  "  it  was  to 
these  time-worn  veterans  that  he  referred. 

Your  architect  is  careful  to  ignore  these  aspects  of  the  case, 
and  discf)unts  these  pleasant  additions  to  the  picture.  He  prefers 
the  cathedrals  of  France,  though  they  for  the  most  part  stand  in 
the  midst  of  squalid  villages  whose  huts  crowd  around  their  base, 
clinging  to  the  very  skirts  of  Our  Lady.  These  buildings  are 
less  appealing,  less  soft  and  cajoling,  but  they  stand  without  ex- 
traneous aid  to  proclaim  and  attest  the  great  souls  and  intellects 
of  their  creators. 

Age  has  a  very  potent  power  of  appeal  to  the  sensitive  mind. 


26  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

For  time  means  history,  and  nothing  is  more  effective  in  making 
us  feel  the  presence  of  the  past,  in  recaUing  historic  events,  than 
biiil(hngs  which  have  seen  or,  perhaps,  sheltered  them.  The  power 
which  such  works  have  of  revivifying  the  former  life  which  surged 
about  them,  profoundly  affecting  the  imagination  of  the  onlooker 
by  the  subtle  spirit  that  permeates  them,  is  a  force  that  must  be 
carefully  taken  into  account  and  guarded  against  by  him  who 
would  sit  in  judgment  on  architecture.  These  i)leasant  emana- 
tions are,  for  the  critic,  illegitimate,  and  must  first  of  all  be  exor- 
cised before  he  is  fit  to  don  the  ermine. 

Let  us  therefore  be  a  little  careful  in  justice  to  the  present- 
day  architect  before  we  are  quite  sure  that  our  admiration  is 
wisely  bestowed,  and  that  our  old  buildings  are  really  so  much 
finer  works  than  those  which  are  being  produced  to-day.  Let  us 
first  try  and  eliminate  Nature  and  her  accessories  of  verdure  and 
decay;  let  us  try  and  make  allowance  for  the  singularly  happy 
results  she  obtains  by  sagging  our  roofs  and  staining  our  walls, 
by  blunting  our  edges  and  playing  havoc  generally  with  the  spe- 
cifications. It  is  all  very  delightful,  but  it  is  not  architecture. 
For  the  same  reason,  let  us  banish  Father  Time  from  our 
thoughts,  with  the  rich  pageant  that  foUov/s  in  his  train,  and 
try  to  discover  only  what  it  was  that  our  designer  had  in  his 
heart,  what  colored  liis  thoughts,  what  guided  his  hand  when 
he  stood  before  his  empty  field  with  visions  swarming  tlirough 
Iiis  brain. 

It  is  a  rather  singidar  thing  that  while  we  all  admire  these  old 
buildings  and  recognize  the  beauty  and  charm  that  is  due  in  such 
a  great  measure  to  age  and  to  what  age  brings,  we  are  so  chary  of 
trying  to  obtain  these  results  for  ourselves,  and  of  trying  to  get 
the  effect  even  if  we  cannot  reproduce  the  cause.  For  one  of 
their  chief  charms  is  the  softness  of  the  lines  and  surfaces.  The 
color  due  to  weathering  is  harder  to  get,  but  there  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  try  successfully  and  legitimately  to  do  away 
with  many  of  our  present  hard,  straight  lines,  sharp  corners  and 
ungracious  surfaces.    The  modern  Enghsh  arcliitects  are  much 


A  wider  spaciii);  ot  the  timbers  iiiiirkc<i  the  later  work,  alter  the  hiiildcr  had 
be^uii  ti)  realize  the  possibihties  nf  this  phable  foriii  of  coiistriu'tion 


THE    CHARM   OF   OLD   WORK  27 

further  advanced  than  we  in  this  particular,  and  it  is  often  im- 
possible to  tell  the  new  from  the  old  in  their  work.  They  some- 
times attain  their  effects  by  using  old  material  in  order  to  get 
the  soft,  weathered  and  warm  surfaces  which  they  have  to  offer. 
It  is  a  conmion  practice  to  make  some  farmer  happy  by  giving 
him  a  spick-and-span  new  tile  or  slate  roof  in  exchange  for  his 
old  Hchen-covered  one,  or  to  buy  his  old  brick  barn  or  walls  for 
what  to  him  is  a  fabulous  price  for  badly  worn  material,  although 
cheaper  for  the  purchaser  than  the  same  materials  new.  Again, 
old  timber,  hand-hewn  and  lovely  with  age,  is  obtained  from  some 
old  croft,  so  racked  and  broken  as  to  be  no  longer  of  use  as  a 
building.  The  house  shown  facing  page  50  is  a  modern  house 
whose  air  of  soft  repose  is  largely  owhig  to  its  use  of  old  timber. 
The  vertical  half-timbers  in  this  case  are  second-hand  railroad 
sleepers  that  are,  of  course,  roughly  hand-he\\Ti  and  of  indifferent 
straightness.  Spike  holes,  knots,  etc.,  Avere  not  considered  any- 
thing to  be  ashamed  of,  and  no  elaborate  precautions  were  taken 
to  hide  them.  The  horizontal  timbers,  which  are  longer,  are  bits 
of  old  scaffolding;  and  while  it  would  be  easy  for  the  architect 
to  find  clients  to  admire  the  results,  it  would  be  harder  to  find 
those  who  would  have  the  courage  to  sanction  this  process.  But 
while  these  methods  are  perfectly  proper  and  esthetically  legiti- 
mate, and  should  require  nothing  but  courage  to  employ  them, 
it  is  a  more  debatable  question  when  we  come  to  such  things  as 
shingle  roofs  imitating  thatch.  For  in  the  first  case  our  building  is 
as  honest  as  the  day  is  long,  the  timbers  are  as  solid  and  as  heavy 
as  they  look;  they  are  exactly  what  they  seem.  But  what  shall 
we  say  of  these  shingle-thatched  roofs?  The  guilty  consciences 
of  these  builders  betray  themselves  when  they  iiasten  to  assure 
us  that  they  are  not  imitating  thatch  at  all.  But  when  we  note 
the  great  pains  and  ingenuity  that  is  lavished  on  these  evidently 
intractable  shingles  to  make  the  flat  roof  curve,  the  angles  blunt, 
and  the  roofs  melt  into  one  another;  when  we  see  the  labored 
inconsequence  of  the  staggering  line  of  shingle  butts  and  the  quite 
starthng  resemblance  to  thatch  which  is  the  result,  it  is  hard  to 


28  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

keep  the  tongue  out  of  one's  cheek.  However,  it  is  such  a  very- 
laudable  endeavor  to  correct  the  prevailing  hardness  of  outline, 
and  shows  such  a  well  developed  dissatisfaction  in  house  building 
a  la  mode,  and  is  so  altogether  charming  and  delightful  in  the 
result,  tliat  one  would  be  willing  to  condone  a  much  more  serious 
breach  of  arcliitectural  ethics  than  this.  xVfter  all,  if  "  archi- 
tecture is  building  that  has  flowered  into  beauty,"  it  is  well  to  keep 
the  objective  —  beauty  —  more  constantly  before  our  eyes  and 
not  to  be  too  much  occupied  in  being  very  sure  we  are  not  break- 
ing the  rules  of  design;  with  the  too  common  result  that  when  we 
are  done,  that  is  all  that  can  be  said. 

There  is  an  existing  confusion  due,  no  doubt,  to  our  Puritan 
blood,  that  architecture  addresses  itself  to  the  moral  sense  instead 
of  to  the  eye  alone.  The  idea  of  a  certain  school  of  armchair 
critics  that  artistic  sincerity  and  the  moral  law  are  identical  is 
one  that  cannot  be  buttressed  by  many  of  the  accepted  architec- 
tural masteri^ieces.  "  '  Sincerity,'  in  many  minds,  is  chiefly  asso- 
ciated with  speaking  the  truth;  but  architectural  sincerity  is 
simply  obedience  to  certain  visual  requirements."  To  be  specific, 
it  is  not  enough  that  a  column  shall  be  strong  enough  for  its  load; 
it  must  look  strong  enough. 

If  Ruskin's  observation  that  "  in  everji;hing  beautiful  there 
is  something  strange  about  its  proportions,"  means  anything, 
it  means  that  the  humdrum  rules  have  been  broken  and  beauty 
is  the  result.  Of  course  it  will  not  do  to  assimie  that  this  is  there- 
fore a  simple  road  to  architectural  success,  and  that  one  has  only 
to  be  lawless  to  succeed.  If  one  is  tempted  to  think  that  the  rules 
must  then  be  A\Tong,  the  answer  is  that  they  are  made  more  to 
act  as  watchdogs  over  the  incompetent  and  to  keep  bad  things 
from  being  perpetrated,  than  to  bind  those  who  are  capable  of 
producing  beauty.  The  real  artist  will  always  rely  on  instinct  and 
not  on  rule. 

However,  we  will  go  more  thoroughly  into  the  details  of  how 
we  may  make  our  houses  less  hard  and  cheerless  in  another  place. 
Suffice  it  here  to  know  that  such  results  as  we  see  in  the  old  ex- 


The  timbering  and  other  outside  woodwork  should  be  left  ruugli  and  unpiiiiitcd 


E 


THE    CHARM    OF    OLD    WORK  29 

amples  and  which  we  all  admire  are  not  beyond  our  reach  and 
that  wliat  we  have  come  to  believe  to  be  the  divorce  between 
beauty  and  utility  is  in  reality  but  a  temporary  misunderstand- 
ing and  not  a  real  case  of  incompatibility. 

These  tilings  do  not  perhaps  seem  very  important  to  many 
people,  but  the  fact  remains  in  this  curious  world  that  there  are 
those  who  care  tremendously  for  the  fun  they  can  have  with  their 
eyes,  and  who  take  these  matters  of  beauty  and  form  with  inor- 
dinate seriousness.  We  have  Oscar  Wilde's  brilliant  biography, 
in  "  Pen,  Pencil  and  Poison,"  of  Griffiths  ^Vainewright,  the 
famous  dilettante  and  esthete  of  the  London  of  the  early  part 
of  the  last  century,  who  combined  with  his  other  talents  that  of 
a  persistent  murderer  by  the  use  of  poison.  When  this  tempera- 
mental 5'oung  man  lay  in  gaol,  awaiting  transportation  for  liis 
crimes,  he  was  visited  by  a  friend  who  reproached  him  for  the 
wilful  murder  of  his  sister-in-law;  he  shrugged  his  shoulders  and 
said:  "  Yes,  it  was  a  dreadful  thing  to  do  —  but  she  had  very 
thick  ankles."  It  is  surprising  that  some  of  our  sensitive  young 
architects,  in  a  moment  of  fury  against  the  anatomy  of  many 
of  our  dwellings,  are  not  languishing  beliind  the  bars  for 
arson. 

We  must,  however,  have  an  honest  love  for  simplicity  and  a 
healthy  scorn  for  ostentation  if  we  are  to  become  happj'  o^\Tiers 
of  the  type  of  work  of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  It  is  essen- 
tially domestic,  cozy,  and  immonumental,  and  if  we  wish  to  fer- 
tilize envy  in  our  opulent  neighbors  this  is  not  the  way,  for  our 
money  can  be  spread  out  much  thinner  and  the  building  bloAvn  up 
to  twice  its  size  for  the  same  price.  We  can  have  Corinthian  col- 
umns running  up  tln-ough  three  stories  that  \v\\\  outshout  our 
plastered  cottage  and  generally  create  an  impression  of  fat  divi- 
dends; for  architecture  can  l)e  made  to  express  coupons  as  well 
as  slippers  and  a  pipe.  We  must  not  fear  that  "  they  "  will 
think  we  build  thus  because  we  can  afford  nothing  else.  In  fact 
this  is  not  for  "  them  "  at  all.  ^^'llcn  Pope  Julius  II  complained 
because  there  was  no  gold  on  the  i)ainted  figures  of  the  Sistine 


80  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

Chapel,  "  These  are  simple  persons,"  replied  the  painter,  "  simple 
persons  who  wore  no  gold  on  their  garments." 

"  Half-timber  "  cannot  compete  wth  all  gold,  and  those  who 
have  a  hankering  for  the  gorgeous  w^ill  find  notliing  of  interest 
between  these  covers.  We  are  discussing  another  matter,  more 
homely  but  closer  to  the  lives  of  "  simple  persons." 


The   Choice  of  Styles 


THE  half-timber  house  was  developed  in  a  flat  country. 
Its  main  divisions,  its  roofing,  and  all  its  manifold  details, 
were  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  conditions  under  which 
it  was  born  and  had  its  growth.  While  it  is  pos- 
Site  and  sible  to  build  any  sort  of  building  anywhere,  it  is 
Location  hard  to  impart  to  it  the  appearance  which  a  build- 
ing should  have,  of  being  the  only  natural  and 
proper  building  for  that  particular  place.  A  house  should  always 
impress  one  as  being  so  exactly  right  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
imagine  any  other  sort  of  house  in  that  particular  spot.  There 
must  be  no  jar  between  man's  work  and  Nature's.  Each  archi- 
tectural style  was  developed  under  different  conditions  of  cli- 
mate, civilization,  materials,  requirements  and  site;  and  each 
has  its  own  setting  into  which  it  falls  perfectly  and  carries  the 
satisfying  conviction,  when  once  it  is  seen  in  its  right  surround- 
ings, that  it  is  inevitably  the  right  thing  and  fits  as  perfectly  as 
the  last  piece  in  a  picture  puzzle. 

Our  English  cottages  and  crofts  would  look  as  strange  on  the 
nigged  hillsides  where  the  Swiss  chalet  has  its  home,  as  the  clmlet 
would  in  the  soft,  gentle  meads  of  England.  Again,  the  house 
of  the  Spanish  peasant  would  never  do  in  England,  with  its  great 
cornice,  thick  walls  and  small  windows. 

As  architecture  is  the  direct  outgrowth  of  conditions  and  re- 
quirements, b}-^  fulfilling  these  conditions,  by  making  straight 
for  tlie  desired  goal,  following  the  lines  of  least  resistance,  with 
absolutely  no  thought  of  producing  "  architecture  "  at  all  —  for 
art  is  a  result,  not  a  j)roduct  —  we  shall  in  spite  of  ourselves  do 
just  tiiis.    Utility  and  logic  are  the  parents  of  tlie  "  Styles." 

The  struggle  for  picturesciuencss,  in  which  the  various  parts 
of  the  outside  of  the  building  are  tortured  and  twisted  to  make 


82  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

a  picture,  exactly  as  a  painter  arranges  the  objects  for  his  can- 
vas, and  hi  which  the  inndUing  plan  is  dragged  hither  and  yon, 
disjointed,  and  generally  ill  used,  can  only  end  in 
Modern  failure.    It  has  been  well  said  that  the  only  artistic 

English  originality  worth  anything  is  that  which  conies  from 

Half-timber    sincerity.    INIanufactured  iiicturesqucness  results  in 
Houses  a  sort  of  unconscionable  stage  scenery,  and  is  to 

honest  work  what  the  landscape  of  the  scenic  rail- 
way at  Conc)'  Island  is  to  nature.  It  is  "  scenic  "  but  somehow 
does  not  fill  the  soul  of  tiie  nature-lover  with  a  satisfying,  solid, 
and  lasting  joy. 

We  remember  that  when  Gulliver  went  to  Lilliput  he  found 
"  a  most  ingenious  architect  who  had  contrived  a  new  method  of 
building  houses,  by  beginning  at  the  roof  and  working  do\\Ti- 
ward  to  the  foundation,  wliich  he  justified  to  me  by  the  practice 
of  those  two  prudent  insects,  the  bee  and  the  spider."  It  would 
seem  as  if  this  architect  must  have  migrated,  to  judge  by  the  com- 
plicated roofs  which  we  see  covering  certain  houses  about  us,  for 
it  is  hard  to  believe  that  their  mazy  intricacies  could  have  been 
achieved  by  any  other  method. 

We  can  but  repeat  what  has  been  said  before,  that  the  inside 
and  outside  of  a  house  form  an  entirety  and  must  not  be  treated 
as  two  separate  things.  Picturesqueness  is  not  a  success  if  it 
smells  of  the  lamp,  and  should  never  be  placed  first,  but  as  a 
welcome  addition  to  the  result  of  logical  and  straightforward  solv- 
ing of  the  utilitarian  problem.  It  should  be  a  sort  of  by-product 
of  honest  building.  Picturesqueness  is  the  gay  and  lovable  sister 
of  Common  Sense,  who  often  accompanies  her,  and  over  the 
result  of  her  cold  calculations  throws  the  soft,  mj^sterious  veil 
of  Romance.  She  appears  unheralded  before  the  tired  eyes  of 
the  master  builder,  a  timid  maid  who  only  comes  unsought,  and 
flees  from  those  who  furiously  pursue.  And  so  if  we  find  that  she 
is  Avith  us  in  our  excursions,  it  will  be  because  we  are  solving  our 
problems  simply  and  honestly  and  have  forgotten  her  existence. 

It  is  because  each  case  must  be  considered  by  itself  that  it 


THE    CHOICE   OF    STYLES  88 

is  so  hard  to  lay  down  even  general  rules  of  architectural  con- 
duct, for  the  exceptional  and  the  normal  cases  would  be  about 
equal.  As  we  are  discussing  an  English  style,  let  us  look  at  the 
sort  of  house  the  modern  Englisliman  likes  and  see  how  it  differs 
from  the  corresponding  dwelling  in  this  country. 

Before  considering  the  plan  in  its  details  let  us  first  try  to 
come  to  some  understanding  of  the  principles  that  should  operate 
in  the  working  out  of  the  problem  at  hand,  no  matter  what  pur- 
poses it  is  called  upon  to  serve. 

There  are  three  forms  of  difficulty  in  making  a  good  plan, 
which  are  found  in  varying  degrees  in  individual  cases.  First: 
the  plan  regarded  as  a  sort  of  Chinese  puzzle  in  which  the  object 
in  view  is  to  arrange  the  blocks,  that  is,  the  rooms,  spaces  and 
conveniences  demanded  by  the  owner  —  all  of  various  shapes, 
sizes  and  uses  —  so  that  the  best  possible  result  may  be  obtained, 
giving  full  weight  to  convenience,  comfort  and  economy  of  both 
space  and  money.  After  determining  the  proper  sizes  and  rela- 
tion of  jjarts,  we  shall  find  the  problem  resolves  itself  into  a 
•struggle  for  compactness,  and  the  elimination  of  waste  s])ace. 
Second:  we  have  to  consider  the  plan  in  relation  to  architec- 
tural composition  both  within  and  without.  Third:  the  plan 
in  its  relation  to  the  cost.  Of  course  it  is  understood  that 
these  difficulties  are  not  to  be  thought  of  as  being  met  and  over- 
come all  at  one  time,  but  on  the  contrary  they  are  all  present  in 
the  mind  of  the  designer  from  the  beginning,  and  it  is  a  constant 
consideration  of  the  varj-ing  claims  of  each  —  a  series  of  com- 
promises, a  sacrificing  of  the  less  imjiortant  for  the  greater  —  that 
molds  the  growing  work  and  finally  produces  the  well  balanced 
result.  It  is  a  matter  for  verj'  nice  judgment,  for  the  question 
of  expenditure,  if  it  is  limited,  as  is  usually  the  case,  is  a  rope  that 
is  continually  bringing  us  up  short.  Every  house  would  be  so 
much  better  if  "they"  would  only  spend  a  little  more  money! 
How  to  spend  the  money  available  to  the  very  best  possible  ad- 
vantage is  the  crux  of  the  matter,  and  acts  as  a  check  to  the  other 
two  considerations. 


34  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

To  the  disi)aragement  of  the  architect  and  to  the  glory  of  the 
owner  be  it  said  that  the  rope  is  generally  lengthened  before  the 
end  is  reached.  To  the  disparagement  of  the  architect,  because 
he  should  be  capable  of  doing  what  he  is  told  or  of  making  it 
known  at  the  start  that  it  is  impossible  to  fulfil  the  requirements 
for  the  given  sum.  To  the  glory  of  the  owner,  because  he  comes 
to  recognize  before  the  building  is  finished  that  he  is  spending 
more  money  than  he  ever  spent  before  in  liis  life,  that  he  has 
demanded  so  much  in  the  first  place  and  has  caused  his  money 
to  be  spread  so  thin,  that  the  quality  is  bound  to  suffer  not  oidy 
in  the  materials  and  workmanship  but  in  a  baldness  that  tran- 
scends simplicity.  There  is  danger  of  all  the  work  being  inade- 
quate unless  he  adds  a  little  more.  In  other  words,  the  difference 
between  having  everything  half  right  and  exactly  right  is  not 
very  great,  and  he  very  sensibly  finishes  properly  what  he  has 
begun. 

But  we  may  now  reverse  the  epithets.  It  is  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  the  owTier  that  he  is  so  seldom  frank  with  his  architect 
and  so  seldom  means  what  he  says.  Perhaps  it  is  because  he  has 
heard  that  architects  always  exceed  the  stipulated  cost  and  so 
he  thinks  that  by  naming  some  sum  below  what  he  is  really  pre- 
pared to  pay  he  will  be  clever  enough  to  gain  his  ends  and  diplo- 
matic enough  not  to  hurt  the  architect's  feelings.  Perhaps  he  has 
read  in  the  "  INIarvellous  Wisdom  and  Quaint  Conceits,"  of 
Thomas  Fuller,  writing  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that "  In  build- 
ing rather  believe  any  man  than  an  artificier  .  .  .  should  they 
tell  thee  all  the  cost  at  the  first,  it  would  blast  a  young  builder  at 
the  budding."  If  this  is  the  reason  it  is  a  great  mistake,  because 
it  leads  to  the  design  of  a  scheme  for  the  house  with  the  low  cost 
in  view,  and  when  toward  the  end  the  owner  begins  to  show  a 
disposition  to  spend  more  and  ha^'e  things  better  it  is  too  late  for 
additions.  There  is  no  outlet,  except  for  such  things  as  beamed 
ceilings,  paneling  in  rooms  not  designed  for  it,  better  toilet  fix- 
tures in  the  too  small  bathrooms,  extra  rooms  forced  into  an  attic 
planned  for  nothing  but  storage,  or  more  plumbing  poorly  accom- 


THE    CHOICE    OF    STYLES  35 

modated  in  out-of-the-way  places.  Often,  however,  the  owner 
cannot  be  accused  of  disingenuousness  in  stating  his  intentions; 
perhaps  more  often  he  makes  it  a  cast  iron  condition  at  the  start 
that  he  must  have  certain  things  and  that  he  will  not  pay  but  a 
given  sum.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  that  these  two  fiats  on  his  part 
are  seldom  a  good  fit,  and  that  it  is  the  demands  that  are  usually 
too  large  to  cram  into  the  sum.  Then,  he  being  adamant  for 
both,  it  usually  ends  in  his  having  what  he  wants  and  paying 
for  it. 

And  to  continue  and  justify  our  classification,  it  is  to  the  glory 
of  the  architect  that  he  is  often  able  to  find  the  hidden  truth  of 
the  whole  matter  of  which  even  the  owner  is  unconscious,  and  so 
save  the  owner  from  liimself.  The  course  of  education  which  the 
owner  of  a  new  house  has  forced  upon  him  is  appalling,  as  he  is 
the  first  to  recognize  when  he  looks  back  over  the  finished  work. 
If  at  the  start  he  is  sometimes  inclined  to  the  idea  that  it  is  all 
a  matter  that  he,  a  strong  man,  can  take  by  the  throat,  he  usually 
ends  in  a  more  chastened  frame  of  mind,  and  with  greater  respect 
for  building  problems.  The  architect  is  tempted  to  paraphrase 
the  witty  French  woman  who  said,  "  Men  are  different  but  all 
husbands  are  alike,"  and  say  that  "  JNIen  are  different  but  all 
clients  are  alike." 

Now  that  we  have  considered  some  of  the  lions  in  the  path 
leading  to  our  castle  in  the  air,  and  how  they  are  to  be  tamed  or 
circumvented,  let  us  consider  what  is  the  desideratum  in  a  home 
after  all,  and  how  we  may  obtain  it.  It  may  be  taken  almost  as 
an  axiom  that  the  same  problem  ne\'er  occurs  twice.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  the  chances  of  a  man's  emptying  a  basket  fidl  of 
letters  off  the  roof  of  a  house  and  having  them  form  themselves 
into  Homer's  Iliad  on  the  lawn,  is  quite  remote.  The  chances 
are  about  the  same  of  there  ever  being  two  exactly  similar  families 
of  exactly  similar  wealth,  who  desire  to  spend  the  same  fraction 
of  it  for  exactly  the  same  house  in  size,  arrangement,  and  appear- 
ance, on  duplicate  pieces  of  land  and  surroundings.  "  There 
ain't  no  such  animal,"  as  the  farmer  said  when  he  saw  the  hipi)o- 


36  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

potamus.  Every  arcliitect  knows  how  impossible  it  is  ever  to 
use  the  same  plan  twice,  and  for  this  reason  books  of  ready- 
made  plans  can  never  offer  a  real  fit  in  any  case,  and  are  per- 
nicious in  their  paper  plausibility  divorced  from  the  site  and  its 
orientation. 


English  and  American  House  Plans 


THE  two  accompanying  plans  have  been  selected  as  ex- 
amples of  moderate-priced  English  country  houses  of  the 
sort  that  are  built  and  lived  in  to-day  by  the  well-to-do 
classes.  They  are  not  given  because  they  are  particularly  good 
or  particularly  bad,  but  as  plans  that  possess  features  typical  of 
present-day  work  and  commonly  found  in  the  average  house 
inhabited  bj'  the  cultivated  British  family.  They  are  instructive 
because,  being  modern  houses  and  jjlanned  to  suit  the  occupant, 
they  throw  an  interesting  light  on  the  demands  and  predilections 
of  the  English.  They  are  instructive  because  the}'  give  a  glimpse 
of  English  character,  and  their  difference  from  houses  of  a  similar 
class  in  this  country  is  a  measure  of  a  true  ethnological  difference 
in  the  peoples,  which  is  more  subtly  expressed  in  bricks  and 
mortar  than  it  would  be  possible  to  do  it  in  words.  Here  we 
have  a  sermon  in  stones.  We  shall  see  that  the  desire  for  privacy 
with  our  British  cousins  is  ahnost  morbid,  and  is  equalled  onlj''  by 
the  desire  for  coziness  and  the  hatred  of  formality  and  stiffness. 
This  makes  itself  felt  in  the  strict  eschewing  of  symmetry  or 
axes  in  the  plan,  or  anything  that  tends  to  formality.  The 
American  desire  for  a  "  house  that  opens  up  well "  would  be  in- 
conceivable to  them.  Their  walled  gardens,  rooms  with  small 
doors,  each  cut  off  from  the  others,  low  ceilings  and  love  of  fire- 
place and  inglenook,  all  sj)eak  of  the  desire  for  informal  domestic 
life  and  slipj)cred  ease. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  first  of  these  plans.  One  of  the  most 
prominent  of  contemporary  English  architects  in  writing  of  this 
plan  says,  "  The  site  was  quite  without  any  sense  of  privacy,  in 
the  residential  part  of  the  town.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to 
remedy  this  in  tlie  irregular  form  of  building  and  the  arched  entry 
to  the  forecourt."    To  an  American,  fifty  feet  from  the  road  "  in 


88 


THE    HALF-TIMBEU    HOUSE 


the  residential  part  of  the  town  "  would  in  itself  have  answered 
all  the  demands  of  privacy;   instead  of  further  putting  a  hedge 


^»r  T     i     r 


-Sit.. 


The  plan  of  a  modern  English  home,  selected  at  random,  illustrating  the 
Englishman's  insistence  upon  seclusion 

between  him  and  the  street  he  would  infallibly  have  tried  to  get 
back  into  things  by  building  a  great  piazza  across  the  entire 
front  of  the  house.  But  this  very  typical  Briton,  after  he  has 
retreated  thus  far,  tlii'ows  liis  scullery  and  garage  up  in  front  of 


ENGLISH    AXD    A^IERICAX    HOUSE    PLANS     39 

the  master's  portion  of  the  house  as  a  guard,  and  drives  under 
a  portcullis-like  entrance  to  an  entirely  enclosed  court  where  he 
may  get  out  of  his  carriage  in  reasonable  safety  from  being  seen 
—  this  was  built  before  flying  machines,  and  the  chance  of  being 
discovered  now  being  enormously  increased,  he  will  doubtless 
roof  his  court.  So  far,  then,  having  fought  the  good  fight  against 
the  distressing  pubhcitj'  of  his  plot  of  land,  let  us  suppose  that 
by  hook  or  crook,  bribery  and  corruption  we  have  penetrated 


HOUJC»TTP)»yi££,  SOy^EPStT. 

E:t?HI.ST  Hrw  TO  N  ^RCM . 


OaiT'iXO 


It  worries  the  Englishman  and  his  architect  not  at  all  that  in  the  service  from  kitchen  to 
dining-room  the  maids  must  traverse  the  full  depth  of  the  house 

into  the  forecourt.  It  is  of  good  size  and  almost  entirely  sur- 
rounded by  the  wings  of  the  house,  the  effect  being  very  charm- 
ing and  interesting.  We  see  that  the  building  covers  a  great  deal 
of  ground  and  we  stand  before  the  great  door  in  the  centre  of  the 
main  house  with  lively  expectation  of  wliat  will  burst  upon  us 
when  the  butler  flings  open  the  door.  \Vlien  the  door  is  opened 
we  see  stretching  ahead  of  us  —  the  "  pantry  "!  Hastily  turning 
to  the  right  and  pretending  we  have  n't  noticed,  we  enter  a  fair- 
sized  hall  from  which  suspicious  little  doors  allow  us  grudgingly 


40 


THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 


to  enter  what  are  sure  to  be  delightful  rooms.  The  stairs  we 
discover  later  have  scudded  around  the  corner  and  are  hiding 
in  the  darkest  end  of  the  hall. 

If  the  greeting  offered  to  the  stranger  by  this  typical  arrange- 
ment seems  lacking  in  effusive  and  expansive  cordiality,  have 
we  not  heard  the  same  charge  brought  against  its  typical  owner? 

One  of  the  strange  features  of  English  house-planning  wliich 
is  better  seen  in  the  second  plan  is  the  distance  and  general  lack 


A  typical  plan  for  an  American  home  that  "  opens  up  well " 

of  connection  between  the  kitchen  and  dining-room.  It  is  more 
common  than  not  for  the  butler  to  have  to  walk  some  distance 
past  the  front  door  or  through  a  corridor  used  by  the  household 
to  reach  the  dining-table.  It  may  be  of  value  to  the  tardy  dresser 
to  be  reminded  that  duiner  is  waiting  by  the  odor  of  the  cauli- 
flower as  it  is  borne  through  the  house;  and  to  have  to  stand 
aside  to  let  one's  soup  pass  would  at  least  give  us  useful  advance 
knowledge  which  might  make  up  for  some  loss  of  heat.  This 
tells  us  very  plainly  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  it  easy  for 


ENGLISH    AND    A31ERICAN    HOUSE    PLANS     41 

servants  where  they  are  so  plentiful  and  so  good;  the  designs 
of  our  houses  in  this  country  are  too  often  sacrificed  to  make 
snares  to  keep  them. 

Now  let  us  return  to  the  United  States  and  consider  what 
we  have  taken  as  a  typical  suburban  plan  as  we  see  it  in  its  essen- 
tials. It  is  placed  not  too  far  from  the  street,  the  main  Hving- 
rooms  facing  it  and  a  piazza  big  or  little  about  the  front  door 
which  is  often  located  in  the  middle.  This  brings  the  hall  in  the 
centre  of  the  house  and  we  have  at  once  on  entering  a  jjerfect 
view  of  the  rooms  on  either  side  through  large  doors,  usually 
sliding  or  folding.  Every  nook  and  corner  is  exposed.  One  may 
rake  the  whole  master's  j^ortion  at  a  glance.  No  reticence  here, 
no  secrets  —  you  are  taken  into  the  heart  of  the  home  at  once, 
and  unless  you  are  a  modest  man  and  swerve  from  your  path, 
you  will  find  yourself  walking  upstairs  into  the  boudoir.  This 
is  indeed  a  "house  that  opens  up  well";  it  is  "good  for  enter- 
taining," fine  circulation,  light,  sun  and  air.  I  think  it  must 
be  that  we  have  a  feeling  that  it  is  snobbish  and  unfriendly, 
perhaps  a  trifle  undemocratic  —  that  bogey  and  knock-down 
argument  in  the  arsenal  of  every  freeborn  American  —  to  wall 
one's  garden  or  sit  away  from  the  traffic,  or  jiull  down  one's  cur- 
tain. We  do  not  feel  the  need  of  privacy  ourselves,  and  the 
existence  of  the  feeling  in  others  would  rob  us  of  a  great  deal 
that  is  intensely  interesting.  Walls,  or  being  away  from  the 
street  make  it  difficult  to  see  the  passing.  It  is  hard  not  to  know 
what  the  neighbors  are  doing. 

It  is  not  a  matter  that  is  at  all  related  to  expense;  when  our 
j)lo(lder  in  the  ranks  has  received  his  captain's  stripes,  we  shall 
find  his  half-million-dollar  house  is  fundamentally  the  same.  He 
does  not  build  a  big,  comfortable  mansion  house  with  much 
thought  to  the  stable,  kennels,  grounds  and  other  appurtenances 
of  a  country  gentleman.  Instead  of  such  a  Iu)use  he  builds  an 
enormous  palace,  cold,  formal  and  sumptuous.  Planned  on 
axes,  we  still  see  on  entering  the  door,  virtuallj'  the  whole.  That 
the  slightly  bewildered  owner  feels  somewhat  awed  in  the  pres- 


42  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

ence  of  so  much  monumental  dignity  is  betrayed  by  the  insertion, 
in  some  out-of-the-way  corner,  of  a  small  office  where  he  and  his 
battered  roll-top  desk  may  metaphorically  fall  into  each  other's 
arms;  here  he  will  make  himself  a  little  home  within  a  home. 
AVe  love  to  dwell  on  our  open  plmnbing  and  patent  thermostats 
and  electric  curling  irons,  and  say  that  the  poor  Enghslmian 
does  n't  know  Avhat  comfort  is.  No  mistake  can  be  greater.  He 
cares  so  much  for  his  comfort,  he  so  wants  what  he  wants  as  he 
wants  it,  that  he  will  let  nothing  stand  in  liis  way  —  nothing  else 
is  important.  He  will  sacrifice  trying  to  impress  liis  neighbors 
by  external  pretentiousness,  he  will  let  no  architectural  consider- 
ation rob  him  of  his  privacy  and  coziness.  His  entertainments 
will  have  to  do  the  best  they  can;  he  has  figured  out  that  he 
entertains  a  few  times  in  a  year  and  lives  in  his  house  every  day. 
He  surrounds  himself  with  his  horses  and  dogs  and  motor  cars, 
the  keynote  of  comfort  is  well  sustained  in  the  milieu  that  he  loves 
to  make  for  himself,  and  the  life  that  goes  on  in  his  little  group  of 
buildings  is  almost  as  complete  and  diverse  as  that  under  the 
roof  of  a  medieval  monastery. 

So  much  for  the  differences  that  are  cardinal  and  indigenous 
in  the  English  work.  When  Charles  Dudley  Warner  said  that 
he  would  as  lief  have  an  Englishman  without  side  wliiskers,  he 
might  have  been  just  as  forceful  if  he  had  said  that  he  would 
just  as  lief  have  an  Englislmian  who  didn't  live  in  a  cottage. 

Let  us  consider  these  houses  in  relation  to  our  ovm,  and 
see  if  there  are  not  some  valuable  lessons  to  be  learned  from 
them. 


A  modern  half-timber  house  at  Essex  Fells,  N.  J.,  with  the  typical 
diagonal  oiul-braces  and  preater  elaboration  in  the  bays 


Close  observation  of  the  En);lish  work  will  help  us  to  avoid  the  ten- 
dency toward  too  ffreat  elabonition  in  the  timber  patterns 


I    g 


How  to  Plan  the  House 


WHATEVER  we  shall  have  to  say  under  this  caption  re- 
garding the  plan  of  the  house  and  its  arrangements,  must 
of  necessity  be  in  many  ways  as  applicable  in  all  essen- 
tials to  houses  of  other  styles  as  to  half-timber  houses.  While 
there  are  certain  arrangements  that  are  typical  of  the  particular 
kind  of  house  of  wliich  we  are  writing  —  a  certain  freedom  of 
design  which  we  like  to  think  is  not  always  obtainable  when  the 
plan  must  be  wedded  to  a  more  exacting  exterior  expression,  it 
is  nevertheless  true  that  for  utilitarian  reasons  such  as  the  elimi- 
nation of  waste  motion,  and  for  the  general  convenience  of  hving 
under  the  conditions  of  modern  civilization,  our  houses  must  very 
closely  reflect  our  lives.  Laissez  faire  is  not  a  motto  for  a  restless 
and  progressive  race.  Emerson's  comment  when  he  heard  that 
Margaret  Fuller  had  said  that  she  "  had  decided  to  accept  the 
world  as  she  found  it  "  is  still  the  voice  of  wisdom.  He  said, 
"  She  'd  better!  "  And  so,  if  we  decide  to  accept  motor  cars  and 
babies,  vacuum  cleaners  and  regular  meals,  books  and  the  gre- 
garious theory  of  man,  we  shall  all  have  something  in  conmion  in 
starting  to  build  a  shelter. 

We  hope  it  will  be  a  half -timber  shelter,  but  in  any  case  there 
are  bound  to  be  certain  necessary  rooms,  and  their  functions  we 
shall  find  automatically  determining  their  relations  with  one 
another.  What  further  rooms  or  space  we  may  add  over  and 
above  what  may  be  termed  necessities  will  be  a  matter  of  uidivid- 
ual  preference  and  mode  of  living.  In  the  discussion  that  follows 
the  author  has  had  more  in  mind  the  usages  and  mode  of  life  in 
this  country  than  in  England,  where  half-timber  work  has  its 
home,  but  the  general  character  of  its  plan,  its  untranimeled  irreg- 
ularities, its  siliiouette,  as  it  were;  the  spaces  to  be  walled  and 
roofed,  will  be  much  alike  in  either  case. 


44  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

In  the  first  place  it  is  often  true  that  on  a  given  piece  of 
ground  there  may  be  several  spots  where  it  is  perfectly  possible 
to  build  an  economical,  atti-active  and  livable  house,  and  personal 
taste  and  individual  predilections  should  be  carefully  consulted 
before  reaching  a  decision.  The  general  scheme  and  size  of  the 
building  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  for  a  moment,  and  the  question 
of  the  fit  of  the  house  on  the  land  should  be  very  carefully  gone 
into  and  with  as  little  left  to  guesswork  and  approximation  as 
possible.  The  grade  of  the  land,  if  the  piece  is  sloping,  is  a  most 
deceptive  thing,  and  always  tends  to  look  more  nearly  level  than 
is  actually  the  case.  It  is  an  excellent  plan  in  considering  any 
given  spot  to  do  a  little  rough  leveling.  A  small  level  will  do 
very  well,  and  even  a  bottle  almost  entirely  full  with  its  little 
air  bubble  has  been  known  to  give  satisfactory  results.  When 
we  have  to  deal  ^ntli  a  piece  of  land  other  than  a  city  lot,  it  is 
often  a  problem  how  we  shall  face  the  house,  or  whether  the  orien- 
tation shall  be  governed  by  the  sun  or  bj'  the  view.  In  any  case, 
before  we  draw  our  plans  we  should  have  a  topographical  map 
made  of  so  much  of  the  grounds  as  we  propose  to  deal  with,  giving 
two-foot  elevation  lines  if  the  piece  is  large  and  the  ground  very 
rough,  or  one-foot  lines  if  there  is  less  difficulty.  It  is  folly  to 
attempt  to  do  serious,  careful  work  without  knowing  accurately 
the  levels  to  be  encountered.  Curiously  enough  the  southern 
aspect  in  the  old  English  house  was  often  purposely  avoided. 
Andrew  Baard,  the  health  faddist  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in- 
structs those  who  build  to: 

"  Ordre  and  edyfy  the  house  so  that  the  prjTicipale  and  chief 
prosjiects  may  be  eest  and  west,  specially  north  eest;  south  eest 
and  south  west  for  the  meryal  of  al  wyndes  is  the  most  worste, 
for  the  south  %\'}aide  doth  corrujit  and  doth  make  eyyll  vapours. 
The  eest  wj-nde  is  temperate,  fryske,  and  fragrant.  The  west 
wind  is  mutable;  the  north  wj-nde  purgeth  yll  vapours;  where- 
fore better  it  is  of  the  two  worste  that  the  ^vindows  do  open  playne 
north  than  plajaie  south." 

Now   wliile   it   is   not   likely   that   the   characters   of   these 


HOW   TO   PLAN   THE   HOUSE  45 

"  ^vjTides  "  have  changed  much  since  these  observations,  it  at 
least  would  seem  that  those  who  "  ordre  and  edj'fy  "  the  house 
have  somewhat  changed  their  minds  about  what  they  like.  In  tliis 
country,  at  least,  those  who  dwell  near  the  Atlantic  seaboard  will 
acknowledge  that  while  the  "  eest  wynde  is  fryske  "  thej'  may  be 
less  ready  to  assent  to  the  idea  that  the  southwest  is  the  "  most 
worste." 

For  houses  that  are  to  be  exclusively  for  summer  use  in  a 
section  of  the  country  where  the  heat  is  not  a  thing  to  be  avoided, 
it  is  naturally  the  view  which  will  have  preference  in  the  lay-out 
of  the  principal  living-rooms.  However,  in  houses  that  are  to  be 
lived  in  all  the  year  round  it  is  rarely  good  policy  to  ignore  the 
cheerful  track  of  Old  Sol,  and  it  is  a  remarkable  view  indeed  that 
would  justify  us  in  jjlacing  our  living-room  where  the  sun  would 
not  enter  during  a  considerable  part  of  the  day. 

Having  placed  our  living-room,  we  have  next  to  determine 
the  relative  positions  of  the  dining-room  and  hall.  For  the 
dining-room  we  shall  be  wise  to  try  for  either  an  east,  northeast 
or  southeast  corner  so  that  we  may  have  the  sun  at  breakfast 
with  its  i)owerful  aid  to  cheerfulness  at  this  depressing  period  of 
the  day.  Whether  it  may  not  be  wise  to  still  further  dispel  the 
natural  gloom  by  adding  a  fireplace  is  a  fair  question.  Unless, 
however,  the  dining-room  is  a  large  one,  some  one  is  sure  to  have 
too  warm  a  back,  as  with  a  dining-table  in  the  centre  the  seats 
of  those  about  it  are  bound  to  be  close  to  the  four  walls.  A  fire- 
place may,  however,  often  be  economically  placed  in  this  room 
as  it  will  probal)ly  be  near  enough  to  the  kitchen  to  have  one  of 
its  chimney  flues,  placed  there  for  that  jjurpose,  used  for  the 
kitchen  range,  the  smoke  pipe  from  which  may  be  easily  made  to 
pass  through  an  intervening  butler's  ])antry  or  some  service  space 
of  the  sort.  Again  as  a  further  antidote  for  the  blues,  a  window 
bay  for  flowers  is  a  welcome  addition,  and  the  morning  sun  will 
make  the  arrangement  an  eminently  ])nictical  one. 

The  dining-room  fixed,  we  have  not  so  much  latitude  in  plac- 
ing the  kitchen,  as  in  this  country  it  is  an  almost  universal  cus- 


46  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

torn,  having  as  its  reason  economy  of  steps  and  time,  to  have  it 
next  the  dining-room,  or  at  least  separated  from  it  only  by  the 
butler's  pantry  through  which  it  may  be  entered,  or  else  by  means 
of  a  short  hall  out  of  which  the  pantry  leads.  It  is  very  desirable 
that  there  shall  be  two  doors  between  these  rooms,  to  shut  out 
the  noise  and  the  odors  that  tend  to  penetrate  from  the  kitchen  to 
the  dining-room,  and  the  butler's  pantry  makes  a  very  welcome 
buffer  between  the  two.  If  the  dining-room  is  on  the  southeast 
this  may  well  bring  the  kitchen  on  the  northwest.  Tliis  is  the 
least  desirable  corner  of  the  house  for  other  rooms,  and  not  at  all 
objectionable  for  the  purposes  to  which  a  kitchen  is  put.  It  is 
the  coldest  corner  of  the  house,  and  as  the  kitchen  is  apt  to  be  the 
hottest  room,  rather  hotter  than  those  who  work  there  desire,  it  is 
well  that  it  should  stand  as  a  protector  and  advance  guard  against 
the  chill  north  winds.  Also  the  pantry  or  larder,  which  will  be 
near-by,  is  the  one  room  in  the  house  that  should  never  see  the  sun, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  neighboring  shed  where  the  refrigera- 
tor has  its  place.  The  placing  of  the  front  door  and  hall  are  gov- 
erned by  both  the  position  of  the  living-room  and  the  location 
of  the  street.  While  it  is  most  often  found  on  the  front  of  the 
house,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  on  either  side  if  it 
will  help  in  the  placing  of  our  other  rooms  where  we  want  them. 
In  small  work  we  shall  do  well  to  make  up  our  minds  to  saving 
space  in  the  hall  and  using  it  to  better  advantage  elsewhere. 
After  the  stairs  are  arranged  all  we  shall  need  is  room  enough 
for  a  chest,  a  chair  or  two  and  space  enough  to  speed  the  parting 
guest. 

This  disposes  of  the  essential  parts  of  the  ordinary  house  of 
moderate  cost.  There  are  various  rooms  that  are  very  commonly 
added  to  this  skeleton  and  which  in  individual  cases  are  considered 
essential,  although  they  are  not  really  fundamental  and  should 
properly  be  considered  as  luxurious  and  delightful  additions  of 
which  we  shall  have  as  many  as  we  can  afford.  It  is  a  question 
whether  the  vestibule  should  come  under  the  head  of  a  necessity 
or  a  luxury.    If  the  door  is  on  the  northwest  and  is  unprotected 


//.  Hailltr  Scolt.  ArchiUcI 

■Tin-  Mall,"  Seal  Hnllnw.  Srvi-iKi.iks.  Kent,  Knjfl.iiul.      Thr  t-iid  wall  shows 
brit'k  tilling  iK'twri'ii  the  limbers 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  47 

by  a  porch  and  the  house  situated  in  a  cold  climate,  it  is  per- 
haps a  necessity.  It  is  apt  to  be  a  nuisance  if  it  is  too  small,  the 
maid  having  to  flatten  herself  behind  the  door  on  one  side  while 
the  visitor  squirms  by  on  the  other. 

The  library  should  be  one  of  the  most  attractive  rooms  in  the 
house,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  make  it  so.  It  is  not  necessary  for 
one  to  be  of  such  a  literary  turn  as  to  say  with  Seigneur  JMontaigne 
of  his  library,  "  There  is  my  seat,  there  is  my  throne.  There  with- 
out order  and  without  method  —  by  piece  meales  —  I  turn  over 
and  ransacke  nowe  one  book  and  now  another  .  .  .  and  walking 
up  and  do^vn  I  endight  and  register  these  my  humors,  these  my 
conceits.  There  I  pass  the  greatest  part  of  my  live  days,  and 
weare  out  most  hours  of  the  day."  The  library  will  be  situated 
near  the  living-room  but  siiould  always  be  slightly  withdrawn 
from  the  bustle  and  general  hfe  of  both  it  and  the  entrance  hall; 
and  this  whether  it  partakes  more  of  the  character  of  a  real  study, 
where  the  master  of  the  house  has  work  to  do,  or  of  that  type  of 
room  which  the  mild-mannered  commuter  loves  to  refer  to  by  the 
savage  title  of  "  Den."  Sanctum  is  another  name  for  this  room 
that  is  nowadaj'S  perhaps  a  little  out  of  fashion.  If  he  is  even 
more  businesslike  he  may  call  it  an  office.  They  are  all  different 
names  for  the  master's  room,  and  the  "  library  "  is  only  the  aris- 
tocrat of  the  lot.  ^Vny  room  that  can  be  filled  with  books  is 
ipso  facto  a  success.  They  are  perfectly  capable  of  taking  the 
job  out  of  the  hands  of  the  interior  decorator  and  making  a  suc- 
cess of  it  without  the  sliglitest  strain  or  effort.  If  the  owner  is 
able  to  sheatlie  his  walls  with  well  filled,  or  perhaps  one  might 
better  say  eiilircl//  filled  bookcases  —  and  for  decorative  purposes 
the  back  of  Laura  Jean  Libby  is  on  a  par  with  that  of  JNIeredith 
—  he  is  a  fortunate  man  and  will  have  a  more  splendid  wall  cov- 
ering than  any  decorator  can  sell  him.  Rut  he  will  destroy  what 
he  has  so  well  begun  if  he  allows  any  meticulous  housewife  to  in- 
duce him  to  hang  glass  doors  in  front  of  his  shelves.  Tlie  high 
lights  and  reflections  from  the  panes  will  be  a  jarring  note,  and 
the  whole  effect  clumsv  and  mercantile.     The  shelves  should  be 


48  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

on  movable  pegs  so  as  to  be  adjusted  to  any  height  and  sheathed 
at  tlie  back,  and  may  well  have  a  row  of  drawers  next  the  floor 
somewhat  deeper  than  the  shelves,  for  magazines,  games,  etc.,  the 
extra  depth  giving  a  shelf  on  top  for  which  one  will  find  plenty 
of  uses.  The  bookcases  will  be  built-in,  and  only  as  a  last  resort, 
or  in  a  strictly  business  library,  should  the  sectional  bookcase  be 
resorted  to.  It  may  have  a  great  future,  but  its  past  and  present 
are  deplorable.  If  to  the  wall  of  parti-colorcd  bindings  he  adds 
a  fireplace,  not  forgetting  to  build  into  the  side  of  the  breast  a 
cupboard  of  ample  size  to  hold  the  necessary  lubricants  to  free 
and  comfortable  male  intercourse,  the  cheery  blaze  will  complete 
the  picture. 

The  recejition  room  was  formerly  felt  to  be  an  imerring  mark 
of  respectability,  and  was  demanded  in  the  smallest  houses  even 
if  it  took  half  the  space  that  might  have  gone  into  the  hving- 
room.  This  feeling  has  rather  had  its  day  among  the  average 
builders  of  ten-  to  fourteen-room  houses.  Its  omission  is  a  real 
step  in  advance,  resulthig  not  only  in  a  simpler  form  of  hospi- 
tality, much  more  fitting  for  those  concerned,  but  is  a  distinct 
architectural  aid  to  the  rest  of  the  plan  of  the  house.  Formerly, 
when  working  with  a  limited  amount  of  floor  space  at  one's  dis- 
posal (for  floor  space  and  money  are  equivalents),  and  the  prob- 
lem called  for  a  reception  room,  it  was  bound  to  mean  that  the 
dining-room,  hall,  and  the  living-room  suffered.  It  was  just  as 
plain  that  the  other  tliree  rooms  must  be  smaller  with  its  intro- 
duction, as  it  is  that  quarters  are  less  than  thirds.  Instead  of 
tliree  good  rooms  we  had  four  bad  ones,  whereas  now  by  giving 
this  space  to  the  living-room  we  may  have  a  fine  big  room,  the 
inertia  of  whose  ample  space  expands  the  soul  and  soothes  the 
nerves.  For  a  big,  generous  room  has  psychotherai^eutic  value  as 
well  as  its  more  obvious  physical  advantages.  An  old  book  on 
building  speaks  of  the  recej^tion  room  as  a  "  Chamber  of  De- 
light." We  are  inclined  to  think  that  it  must  be  a  very,  very  old 
book  indeed,  as  that  is  not  a  good  description  of  the  modern  affair. 
The  reception  room  nowadays  is  too  often  a  tawdiy  foster-child 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  49 

of  the  honest  home,  its  meretricious  elegance  having  nothing  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  tlie  house  or  its  inhabitants ;  as  a  sophisti- 
cated, citified,  hneal  descendant  of  the  chill  country  parlor  with 
its  wax  flowers  and  gilt  copy  of  ;Miss  Hemans'  poems,  it  is  passing 
away.  Requiescat  in  pace.  Not  that  we  are  to  understand  that 
a  reception  room  is  always  a  mistake,  for  when  the  size  of  the 
house  and  the  general  style  of  hving  warrant  it,  it  is  as  indispen- 
sable as  the  library.  We  only  wish  to  plead  with  the  small  house 
against  putting  on  airs  and  squandering  precious  space  so 
unwisely. 

The  sun  parlor  or  morning-room  is  considered  a  necessitj'  by 
the  English  but  is  not  often  found  with  us.  In  the  country  house 
it  bears  much  the  same  relation  to  the  living-room  that  the  break- 
fast room  does  to  the  dining-room.  It  is  a  room  for  pipes  and 
sewing,  and  will  let  onto  a  terrace  with  the  garden  not  far  off  and 
the  flowers  peering  in.  It  is  the  sort  of  room  in  which  the  dog 
may  fittingly  doze  in  the  sun,  where  all  the  chairs  should  have 
arms  so  that  we  may  hang  our  legs  over  them,  and  where  sewing 
threads  really  look  well  on  the  floor.  A  delightful  room  for 
novels  and  tea  and  flirting,  or  for  anything,  for  that  matter,  that 
is  not  weighty  or  portentous.  In  California,  where  house  heating 
takes  the  form  of  going  outdoors  to  get  warm,  the  sun  parlor  fills 
a  real  need,  and  to  live  in  the  sun  under  glass  hke  a  Hamburg 
grape  is  a  most  comfortable  experience. 

The  billiard  room,  which  in  England  is  often  found  on  the 
first  floor  near  the  other  living-rooms,  is  in  this  country  more  often 
relegated  to  the  basement  or  attic;  when  so  done,  however,  it  is 
usually  because  of  lack  of  space  elsewhere.  The  billiard  room 
being  strictly  for  business  —  the  business  of  play  —  need  have 
little  attention  to  outlook  or  the  points  of  the  conn^ass.  The 
essential  thing  is  plenty  of  light  and  adequate  size;  it  should 
not  be  less  than  fifteen  feet  by  eighteen  feet,  and  should  be 
larger  to  accommodate  seated  spectators.  A  fireplace  is  a 
welcome  addition  in  any  case,  as  the  room  is  apt  to  partake  of 
the  functions  of  a  lounging-room,  and  heat  in  some  way  should 


50  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

be  provided.    It  is  ruinous  to  ivory  balls  to  let  them  become  too 
cold. 

If  we  were  in  an  English  half-timber  house  we  should  con- 
sider the  "  gun  room  "  under  this  head,  but  as  this  is  not  an 
ordinary  requirement  in  this  country  we  need  not  let  it  detain 
us  further  than  to  say  that  if  we  require  such  a  private  arsenal  it 
would  naturally  take  its  place  along  with  the  library  and  billiard 
room. 

The  coat  closet,  wliich  there  is  a  growing  tendency  to  amplify 
and  expand  into  a  lavatory  or  brush  room,  is  best  situated  near 
the  front  door  and  generally  off  the  front  hall,  where  those  enter- 
ing the  house  may  at  once  repair  and  wash  and  brush  up  and 
leave  their  wraps,  before  entering  the  house  proper,  where  they 
may  then  meet  the  OAvner  on  his  o^vn  footing.  It  is  an  excellent 
arrangement  also  where  there  are  children,  and  may  well  serve 
as  a  barrier  against  further  inroads  of  rubber  boots  and  dirty 
hands.  We  are  somewhat  hampered  the  moment  we  introduce 
plumbing  into  a  room  or  closet  of  this  sort  by  the  necessity  of 
direct  ventilation,  which  means  an  outside  window.  This  is  com- 
pulsory under  the  laws  of  many  cities  and  towns,  and  is  a  rule 
that  should  be  observed  whether  or  not  officially  promulgated. 
Although  the  science  of  sanitary  plumbing  has  made  ahiiost  revo- 
lutionary strides  in  the  past  two  decades  and  is  now  both  in 
theory  and  execution  almost  perfection,  it  has  not,  and  probably 
never  will,  arrive  at  a  point  where  it  is  hygienically  advisable  to 
dispense  with  direct  outside  ventilation  for  the  water-closet. 

The  next  addition  we  shall  probably  make  will  be  a  break- 
fast room.  This  is  a  most  useful  and  pleasant  room  in  a  large 
house  where  the  dining-room  will  probably  be  a  room  of  some 
size  and  dignity,  the  sort  of  room  with  which  we  are  quite  en 
rapport  at  a  brilliant  dinner  party,  an  excellent  background,  with 
its  statelj'^  splendor,  to  the  subdued  gaiety  of  the  occasion.  A 
room  of  this  character,  however,  is  apt  to  look  in  the  clear  virgin 
light  of  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  hke  the  traditional  "  banquet 
hall  deserted,"  and  is  a  fit  companion  only  for  one  who  has  dined 


A'^air.f'- 


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Modern  English  houses  at  Port  Sunlight,  one  of  the  model  English  villages 


HOW   TO    PLAN   THE    HOUSE  51 

there  the  night  before  and  appears  next  morning  in  the  gay  habih- 
ments  of  the  feast.  To  be  frank,  we  must  acknowledge  that  our 
splendid  dining-room  makes  a  depressing  breakfast  room.  The 
austerity  of  heavy  silver  and  mahogany  act  as  a  rebuke  to  our 
obvious  let-down  from  our  gracious  dignity  of  the  night  before. 
We  are  uneasy  and  irritated  in  its  presence;  we  are  discovered 
and  feel  no  better  than  hypocrites,  and  are  in  no  mood  to  be  lec- 
tured over  the  eggs  and  bacon.  It  is  this  feeling  almost  of  neces- 
sity that  has  been  the  mother  of  the  invention  of  the  breakfast 
room.  It  may  either  take  the  form  of  an  alcove  leading  off  the 
main  dining-room,  or  it  may  be,  that,  following  the  lines  of  least 
resistance,  it  will  develop  into  a  separate  room;  in  either  case  it 
will  not  be  far  from  the  dining-room  as  they  must  both  be  within 
easy  reach  of  the  butler's  pantry  and  kitchen.  The  points  to  be 
insisted  upon  in  regard  to  it  are  that  it  shall  have  plenty  of  morn- 
ing sun,  that  it  must  not  be  too  large,  and  that  its  furniture  and 
decorations  strike  the  light  and  cheerful  note.  If  dignified  and 
splendid  are  suitable  words  for  the  dining-room,  pretty  and  cozy 
should  describe  its  offspring.  Tints  should  take  the  place  of  de- 
cided colors;  hangings,  rugs  and  upholstery  should  take  on  a 
playful  and  frivolous  character. 

It  is  very  common  in  the  English  half-timber  houses  and  is 
even  more  appropriate  in  this  country,  to  have  a  terrace  some- 
where adjoining  the  house,  and  it  is  a  very  happy  arrangement 
if  it  includes  the  dining-room.  It  is  very  pleasant  in  summer  to 
have  this  foreground  to  the  garden  view  beyond,  and  to  have 
one's  meals  al  fresco  is  most  delightful.  Here  we  have  a  dining- 
room  indeed  with  the  welkin  for  our  ceiling  and  walls  of  jocund 
posies.  We  may  be  as  practical  as  we  like,  screen  it  in  and  cover 
it  with  a  roof  —  if  we  are  not  on  easy  terms  of  familiarity  with 
all  outdoors  —  or  we  may  compromise  with  a  less  solid  form  of 
shelter,  such  as  an  awning  of  more  or  less  temporary  kind,  or 
better  still  with  vines  on  some  informal  arrangement  of  poles  and 
crossbars  supported  on  posts.  We  are  trying  liard  to  avoid  the 
word  "  pergola."     The  chairs  and  tables  should  be  of  the  sort 


52  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

that  can  be  left  out  in  all  weather.  Practical  convenience  will 
be  served  if  it  can  be  planned  to  have  a  window  in  the  butler's 
pantry  to  be  used  as  a  shde  by  the  maid  in  serving  and  clearing 
away,  particularly  when  rain  appears  uninvited  to  the  feast,  as 
is  sometimes  the  case,  and  the  adjourimient  must  be  done  in  a 
hurry ! 

The  modern  contrivance  of  a  conservatory  is  a  delightful 
addition,  that,  with  our  modern  heating  appliances,  is  not  so 
great  an  extravagance  as  the  name  conveys  to  the  minds  of  most 
peoj)le.  The  construction  may  vary  in  elegance  all  the  way  from 
what  a  handy  man  around  the  house  will  make  in  his  sjiare  time 
with  window  sash,  to  the  verj'  elegant  and  quasi-oriental  struc- 
ture that  the  professional  greenhouse  men  will  erect.  The  size 
must  be  carefully  considered  and  we  must  not,  in  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  moment,  build  too  large,  for  while  one  cannot  have  too 
many  flowers  one  can  easily  find  them  too  much  care.  Old 
Thomas  Fuller  in  "  The  Holy  State  "  gives  us  seven  maxims,  the 
last  bit  of  wisdom  being,  "  A  house  had  better  be  too  little  for  a 
day  than  too  great  for  a  year."  Whether  he  was  living  in  a  green- 
house when  he  threw  this  stone  we  do  not  know,  but  at  any  rate 
it  was  sufficiently  well  aimed. 

The  conservatory  may  be  connected  with  the  house  but  should 
not  be  a  part  of  it.  It  should  have  its  own  heating  plant,  which 
should  be  either  a  steam  or  hot-water  system.  The  hot  air  from  a 
furnace  is  too  dry,  no  matter  what  precautions  are  taken,  for  the 
best  growth  of  plants.  The  moisture  and  temperature  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  greenhouse  require  will  be  too  much  for  the 
inhabitants  of  the  house,  and  for  this  reason  the  two  should  be 
separated.  A  conservatory  letting  off  the  dining-room  is  a 
favorite  location,  but  its  placing  will  be  governed  by  so  many 
things  i^eculiar  to  each  individual  plan  that  it  is  of  httle  use  to  try 
to  lay  down  rules.  It  is  sometmies  arranged  to  glass-in  part  of 
a  covered  piazza  using  adjustable  heating  pipes  to  put  it  up  and 
take  it  down  Avith  the  seasons.  This  is  a  sensible  thing  to  do 
when  the  amount  of  space  is  limited.    The  floor  should  be  either 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  53 

of  tile,  brick,  cement,  or  the  ground  itself,  and  properly  drained 
to  carry  off  surface  water.    It  should  never  be  of  wood. 

Coming  to  the  service  portion  of  the  house,  we  shall  find  that 
an  enormous  amount  of  time  and  ingenuity  has  been  expended 
in  improving  the  infinite  mmiber  of  things  that  go  to  minister 
more  or  less  directly  to  the  ease  and  comfort  of  the  other  end  of 
the  house.  We  sometimes  have  a  suspicion  that  the  desire  for 
convenience  overleaps  itself  and  the  results  become  so  complex  as 
to  offset  with  their  intricacies  what  they  gain.  It  is  often  a  very 
pretty  question  with  these  ingenious  labor-saving  devices  whether 
in  the  hurlyburly  of  daily  use  they  are  worth  the  bother.  How- 
ever, such  things  as  plate  slides,  ash  chutes  from  the  fire-box  to  the 
ash  barrel,  gas  hot-water  heaters,  gas  and  electric  ranges,  vacuiun 
cleaners,  clothes  chutes,  etc.,  seem  to  have  proved  their  worth  and 
to  have  come  to  stay.  To  the  bare  skeleton  of  kitchen,  pantry 
and  china-closet  —  for  which  "  butler's  pantry  "  is  a  more  descrip- 
tive name,  even  though  it  is  tacitly  understood  that  it  will  never 
see  its  titular  o^vner  —  we  may  articulate  a  servants'  hall,  laun- 
dry, shed,  cold  room,  coal  bins,  toilet  room,  closets,  etc.,  all  of 
which  will  be  very  welcome  to  those  who  work  here. 

Just  a  word  about  the  kitchen  before  we  leave  it.  In  the  first 
place,  all  women  may  be  divided  into  two  classes:  those  who  be- 
lieve in  large  kitchens  and  those  who  favor  small  ones.  A  small 
one  will  measure  about  ten  by  twelve  feet ;  anjiihing  smaller  than 
this  is  really  a  kitchenette.  The  advocates  of  a  small  kitchen  talk 
of  having  everything  handy  and  of  saving  steps.  The  arguments 
for  a  large  kitchen  are  plenty  of  elbow  room  and  light  and  air. 
In  either  case  it  is  desirable  to  have  the  windows  large,  placed 
near  the  ceiling,  and  so  arranged  as  to  give  a  cross  drauglit.  The 
placing  of  tables  and  sinks  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  which  is  pop- 
ular in  England,  is  only  possible  in  a  large  kitchen,  and  even  there 
the  complaint  is  made  that  one  is  continually  having  to  walk 
around  them.  A  hood  should  be  placed  over  the  range,  ventilated 
into  a  special  flue  alongside  of,  or  in  the  centre  of,  the  hot  range 
flue;  making  it  a  warm  flue  insures  a  pulling  draught  which  will 


54  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

do  wonders  towards  taking  off  the  hot  air  and  odors  as  they  rise 
from  the  cooking.  There  should  he  a  dresser  for  tahle  china, 
etc.,  if  there  is  to  be  no  servants'  dining-room,  and  space  for  a 
table.  The  floor  may  be  cork  tile,  which  is  the  best,  or  wood,  com- 
position, hnoleum  or  tile.  This  latter  works  well  and  is  easily 
cleaned  but  is  hard  on  the  feet.  Wood  floors  are  difficult  to  keep 
looking  well,  and  no  surface  finish  will  last,  no  matter  what  the 
advertisement  says.  The  various  compositions  in  the  market  are 
good,  but  are  likely  to  crack  over  a  wood  floor. 

The  laimdrj^  will  be  the  first  addition,  and  it  is  no  longer  con- 
sidered a  luxury  to  have  this  a  separate  room,  either  near  the 
kitchen  or  more  often  in  the  basement  beneath  the  kitchen.  When 
so  located  great  care  must  be  taken  to  be  sure  that  it  is  provided 
with  plenty  of  light.  The  ordinary  cellar  window  will  not  do. 
It  is  usually  placed  under  the  kitchen  so  that  the  kitchen  plumb- 
ing and  cliimney  may  be  utilized.  It  should  also  have  easy  access 
to  the  cellar  door  and  clothes-yard  without,  and  should  of  course 
be  provided  with  artificial  light.  If  there  is  no  wood  floor  but 
only  cement,  it  will  be  well  to  have  a  wood  grille  in  front  of  the 
tubs  for  the  workers  to  stand  on,  thus  keeping  their  feet  dry  and 
off  the  cold  cement. 

The  servants'  dining-room,  or,  as  they  say  in  England,  the 
"  servants'  hall,"  is  a  j^ractical  necessity  when  there  are  more  than 
two  servants  who  take  their  meals  in  the  house.  Their  presence 
in  the  kitchen,  even  if  it  is  a  large  one,  is  a  constant  source  of 
annoyance  and  irritation  to  the  cook,  and  the  number  of  square 
feet  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  add  to  the  size  of  the  kitchen 
for  their  accommodation  would  much  better  be  set  aside  as  a 
separate  room.  It  will  serve  as  a  dining-room  with  a  dresser 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  necessary  table  ware,  and  as  a 
sitting-room  when  they  are  off  duty.  It  may  be  quite  small  but 
should  be  close  to  the  kitchen  so  as  to  minimize  the  labor  of  send- 
ing the  meals  and  washing  up  afterwards.  Sometimes  an  alcove 
is  made  off  the  kitchen,  but  this  takes  as  much  space  as  a  separate 
room  and  is  not  nearly  so  satisfactory  from  any  point  of  view, 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  55 

particularly  when  there  are  men  to  be  fed.  It  is  very  desirable 
to  keep  them  out  of  the  kitchen. 

A  shed,  which  is  considered  an  absolute  necessity  in  the  coun- 
try, will  be  hailed  with  delight  anj^vhere.  Its  uses  are  manifold 
and  cannot  be  catalogued.  It  is  a  sort  of  refuge  for  outcasts  that 
caimot  claim  a  more  definite  residence.  They  will  be  a  diverse 
and  motley  companj'  to  be  sure,  these  waifs :  the  velocipede  with 
its  pedals  looks  with  pity  on  the  one-armed  ice-cream  freezer; 
the  ironing-board  will  gaze  with  padded  contempt  on  the  naked 
mahoganj'  table  leaves ;  while  an  assortment  of  garden  tools  will 
modestly  seek  to  hide  beliind  a  bristling  rubbish  barrel;  and  king 
over  all  is  the  portly  refrigerator.  This  last,  however,  is  often 
placed  in  a  small  recess  in  the  back  vestibule,  just  large  enough 
to  receive  it,  between  the  outside  back  door  to  the  jjorch  and  the 
one  to  the  kitchen.  Again,  an  excellent  arrangement  is  to  have 
it  in  the  pantry,  provided  it  is  not  too  near  the  kitchen  range,  and 
the  ice  may  be  jiut  through  a  door  in  the  wall,  either  from  a  back 
hall  or  from  outside  the  house.  This  latter  method  is  very  pop- 
ular as  it  keeps  the  iceman  entirely  out  of  the  house,  which  is 
just  as  well  as  he  has  been  known  to  hit  on  the  bright  idea  that 
shpping  an  egg  or  two  into  his  pocket  will  help  moderate  the  high 
cost  of  living!  He  must  at  any  rate  be  kept  out  of  the  kitchen, 
with  his  dripping  ice  and  muddy  boots.  Refrigerators  are  now 
made  with  ice  doors  built  into  the  back.  In  large  establish- 
ments the  refrigerator  may  assume  a  more  commodious  form 
and  become  a  cold  room  all  by  itself.  This  is  a  small  insulated 
room  entered  by  a  tight-fitting  door  with  a  great  trough  for  ice 
on  the  outside  wall,  the  ice  being  fed  in  through  a  high  door  in 
the  back,  the  walls  sujiporting  shelves,  hooks,  etc.,  for  the  food. 

We  nuist  be  sure  to  find  a  corner  somewhere  —  it  need  not 
be  large  —  that  can  he  turned  into  a  closet  for  brooms,  mops,  etc., 
and  which  may  also  serve  as  a  coat  closet.  The  omission  of  this 
small  aft'uir  causes  an  amount  of  feeling  that  is  surprising,  and  it 
is  hard  to  realize,  if  we  may  believe  our  ears,  that  it  is  not  quite 
the  most  important  affair  in  tlie  house. 


56  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

Our  pantry  must  have  an  outside  ^v'indow  so  that  we  may 
keep  it  cool,  and  for  the  same  reason  it  must  be  located  where 
the  sun  will  enter  as  little  as  possible  —  never,  if  it  can  be  ar- 
ranged. It  must  have  cupboards  for  flour  and  sugar  barrels, 
crocks,  etc.,  a  few  drawers  with  a  wide  counter  under  the  window, 
a  mixing-board  of  plate  glass  or  a  marble  slab,  and  plenty  of 
open  shelf  room.  Part  of  these  shelves  may  well  be  protected 
from  flies  by  being  partitioned  off  with  a  screened  door. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  make  kitchen  pantries  too  large,  just 
as  there  is  a  tendency  to  make  butlers'  pantries  too  small.  The 
latter  should  contain  a  two-j)art  sink  of  German  silver  if  possible, 
with  the  metal  brought  up  to  cover  the  counter  and  run  up  six 
inches  on  the  walls.  If  its  cost  puts  this  out  of  the  question  we 
must  make  a  tinned-copper-lined  box  sink  do,  the  objection  to  this 
being  that  the  tin  plating  soon  wears  off  and  allows  the  copper 
to  show  through.  Iron  or  porcelain  sinks  are  not  good  here  as 
they  are  apt  to  crack  the  china.  The  chance  of  getting  a  cupboard 
under  the  sink  should  not  induce  us  to  enclose  tliis  space.  The 
plumbing  pipes  and  trap  should,  for  sanitary  reasons,  be  left 
open  to  the  air. 

^Ve  should  see  to  it  that  we  have  two  banks  of  drawers,  the 
bottom  one  deep  enough  for  table  linen  and  long  enough  for 
centre-pieces.  The  top  drawers  should  be  shallow,  say  four  inches 
deep,  divided  by  slender  partitions,  and  lined  with  felt  for  silver. 
We  must  get  all  the  counterspace  and  glazed  cupboards  with 
shelves  to  the  ceihng  that  are  possible.  Our  cupboard  doors  maj^ 
either  be  liinged  to  swing,  or  slide  on  tracks.  The  objection  to 
the  hinged  door  is  that  if  it  is  left  open  by  any  chance  it  hangs 
out  into  the  passage  and  will  cause  trouble  as  an  obstacle  in  the 
dark,  or  when  the  maid  is  intent  on  her  work.  The  sliding  doors 
for  this  reason  are  probably  better,  though  they  have  been  known 
to  stick,  and  as  their  being  left  open  carries  no  penalty  with  it, 
we  shall  find  in  practice  that  this  is  too  often  the  case. 

Beneath  our  counter,  in  addition  to  our  drawers,  we  may  have 
cupboards,  a  safe,  and  perhaps  a  small  refrigerator  for  salads, 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  57 

desserts  and  such  things,  and  a  plate-warmer.  This  latter  often 
takes  the  form  of  a  small  radiator  designed  for  the  purpose. 
This  of  course  can  he  done  only  when  the  house  is  heated  hy  hot 
water  or  steam,  and  even  then  will  he  useless  when  our  winter 
heat  is  discontinued.  Gas  is  also  used.  The  electric  plate- 
warmer  is  perhajis  the  hest;  the  ohjection  that  it  may  be  left 
turned  on  can  be  overcome  by  placing  a  red  light  on  the  same 
circuit,  which  will  show  in  the  pantry  or  kitchen,  and  act  as  a 
reminder.  This  may  also  be  done  with  the  cellar  light  which 
we  sometimes  forget  to  turn  off  when  the  switch  is  at  the  head 
of  the  stair.  We  should  have  a  slide  at  the  level  of  the  counter, 
opening  into  the  kitchen,  and  the  counter  should  be  continuous  if 
possible  so  that  dishes  may  be  slid  right  through  from  pantry  to 
kitchen.  Our  table  leaves  may  also  find  a  specially  designed 
home  here,  and  such  conveniences  as  towel  racks,  sliding  counter 
extensions,  platter  racks,  drop  shelves,  disappearing  steps  for  the 
top  shelves,  etc.,  will  all  or  many  of  them  find  a  place. 

The  distance  of  the  front  hall  from  the  kitchen  should  be  as 
direct  and  short  as  possible,  and,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add, 
should  avoid  taking  us  through  any  room.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  kitchen  should  be  cut  off  from  the  front  hall  and  the  master's 
portion  by  at  least  two  doors,  which  will  necessarily  mean  some 
sort  of  hall  or  closet  between,  giving  us  the  dead  air  space  which 
is  so  desirable  for  sound-proofing  and  as  a  protection  against  the 
kitchen  odors.  Doors  occupying  such  strategic  points  as  these 
should  not  be  relied  upon  to  keep  their  openings  closed  unaided, 
and  a  substantial  automatic  door  check  will  be  found  to  have  a 
much  better  memory  than  the  best  trained  maid,  and  at  the 
same  time  will  prevent  the  possibility  of  slamming  either  from 
draughts  or  other  causes.  It  will  often  be  found  convenient, 
in  small  houses,  to  glorify  this  passage  by  a  slight  expansion 
into  a  coat  closet  and  telephone  booth,  and  it  may  even  be  found 
possible  to  have  the  cellar  stairs  go  down  out  of  it,  of  course 
with  a  door  at  the  top.  It  may  also  be  found  advisable  to  have 
the  back  stairs  go  up  from  it. 


58  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

The  exigencies  of  the  more  important  rooms  will  probably 
have  forced  this  hall  into  the  interior  of  the  house,  and  it  will 
in  that  case  be  necessary  to  borrow  light  from  the  butler's  pantry 
or  kitchen  through  a  sash  in  the  wall,  or  to  insert  a  light  of  glass 
in  one  of  the  doors.  If  this  proves  to  be  the  case  we  should  reso- 
lutely give  up  any  ideas  of  introducing  a  water-closet  into  tliis 
space. 

It  is  better  not  to  have  either  the  cellar  stairs  or  the  back  stairs 
to  the  second  floor  lead  directly  out  of  the  kitchen,  even  with  a 
door  to  cut  them  off  at  the  start.  Odors  and  dampness  never 
seem  content  to  stay  where  they  happen  to  be,  and  may  be  relied 
upon  to  break  through  and  start  on  their  wanderings  through 
these  convenient  passageways.  This  matter  of  the  small  interior 
hall  is  not  of  course  an  ideal  arrangement  and  will  be  resorted  to 
only  in  very  small  work  where  space  must  be  very  economically 
apportioned.  This  is  the  principle  of  the  relation  of  the  kitchen 
and  the  front  hall  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms.  In  bigger  work 
we  shall  avoid  enclosed  space  Avithout  outside  air  or  light,  and 
generally  increase  and  amplify  the  connecting  links. 

Arriving  in  the  front  hall,  we  are  now  back  where  we  started 
and  ready  to  go  to  the  second  floor. 

Before  leaving  the  ground  floor  we  might  say  a  few  words  of 
a  general  nature  regarding  some  of  the  common  problems  that 
often  have  to  be  decided  in  the  arrangement  of  the  main  living- 
rooms.  If  we  are  building  on  a  site  which  is  of  a  naturally  irreg- 
ular surface  with  considerable  change  of  grade  over  that  portion 
where  our  house  is  to  stand,  it  is  a  perfectly  natural  and  sensible 
thing  to  fit  the  house  to  the  ground  as  much  as  may  be,  by  lower- 
ing or  raising  the  floor  level  with  the  changes  of  the  grade, 
thus  not  only  effecting  an  economy  of  material  but  fitting  the 
building  to  its  site.  Our  reward  will  be  that  only  true  and 
satisfj'ing  picturesqueness  which  is  the  result  of  meeting  logi- 
cally and  naturally,  in  the  most  direct  way,  the  problem  as  one 
finds  it. 

We  must,  however,  be  careful  in  planning  not  to  let  such 


/ 


I'Uv  pliin  of  the  half-timber  house,  by  reason  of  its  pnal)ihty.  may  provide,  as  here, 
for  incorporating  the  (jarafje  into  one  end  of  the  building 


2 


2 


to 

c 


§.2 


¥• 


HOW   TO   PLAN    THE    HOUSE  59 

changes  of  level  occur  in  locations  which  will  interfere  with  the 
ease  of  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  household.  The  shifting  of 
a  step  a  few  feet  will  often  make  a  vast  difference;  for  instance 
from  one  side  of  a  door  to  the  other,  to  form  part  of  a  neighbor- 
ing run  of  steps,  and  so  on.  If  changes  of  level  occur  in  the 
middle  of  a  room  it  has  the  practical  effect  of  dividing  it  into 
two  distinct  rooms  and  where  we  had  one  big  room  before  we  shall 
have  the  equivalent  of  two  small  ones.  If  one  is  on  the  upper 
level  in  a  room  so  divided  he  will  alwaj's  be  haunted  by  the  fear 
that  he  may  forget  and  step  backwards.  It  will  be  forcing  on 
him  an  added  responsibility  which  he  will  unconsciously  resent. 
We  must  also  be  careful  not  to  place  steps  where  they  are  not 
to  be  expected  or  where  they  will  be  badly  lighted,  or  we  shall 
have  accidents.  When  only  two  or  three  steps  occur  they  must 
be  made  wider  and  much  more  ample  than  is  at  aU  necessary  in 
a  long  flight. 

The  matter  of  a  fireplace  is  always  a  vital  one  and  if  we  are 
to  have  a  chimney  it  is  often  a  temptation  to  locate  it  so  that  it 
will  serve  two  or  more  rooms.  This  of  course  is  an  economy  if 
it  does  not  result  in  our  having  two  fireplaces  where  we  do  not 
want  them,  instead  of  one  where  we  do.  For  instance,  if  we  have 
a  living-room  and  library  adjoining,  we  are  often  tempted  to  put 
a  chimney  in  the  partition  between  with  fireplaces  in  each  room, 
back  to  back.  JNIore  often  than  not,  however,  this  wiU  bring  them 
close  to  the  entrance  doors,  which  is  not  a  good  arrangement,  not 
only  because  of  the  draught  but  because  it  will  prevent  a  drawing 
of  chairs  about  the  fire.  And  fully  equal  to  these  real  inconven- 
iences is  the  instinctive  feeling  that  there  is  a  lack  of  coziness.  One 
never  saw  a  cat  pick  out  a  spot  to  sleep  in  between  a  door  and  a 
fireplace. 

There  are  some  people  who  so  object  to  stairs  that  they  en- 
deavor to  have  as  much  of  the  house  as  possible  on  the  first  floor. 
The  pros  and  cons  of  a  ground-floor  bedroom  are  sufficiently 
obvious,  and  it  resolves  itself  into  a  matter  of  personal  taste. 
There  is  no  sound  reason  for  not  having  one's  sleeping-room  on 


60  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

the  ground  floor.  Those  who  don't  like  it  give  as  a  reason  —  that 
they  don't  like  it !    It  seems  to  be  another  case  of 

"I  do  not  like  you.  Dr.  Fell, 
The  reiisoii  why  I  cannot  tell, 
But  this  at  least  I  know  full  well, 
I  do  not  like  you.  Dr.  Fell." 

Which  is  often  the  best  of  reasons  because  it  is  so  impervious  to 
argument. 

Lest  you,  gentle  reader,  belong  to  this  class  and  are  being 
gradually  prodded  into  a  dull  rage,  let  us  say  no  more  on  the 
subject  but  hasten  up  stairs  at  once.  As  has  been  remarked  in 
another  place,  if  we  are  in  a  real  English  house  we  may  have  to 
hunt  about  a  bit  to  find  these  same  stairs. 

The  problem  on  the  second  floor  is  briefly  to  get  as  many  and 
as  large  rooms  as  possible,  and  all  other  considerations  are  secon- 
dary. There  is  no  need  of  the  clear  height  from  floor  to  ceiling 
on  the  second  floor  being  over  eight  feet  six  inches,  and  it  may 
well  be  eight  feet  or  even  seven  feet  six  inches,  which  will  be  a 
great  aid  to  coziness  and  will  lend  to  the  rooms  an  appearance 
of  size  which  they  do  not  possess. 

The  owner's  quarters  will  naturally  be  the  best,  and  we  shall 
expect  to  find  him  with  the  southern  sun,  a  pleasant  view,  a  fire- 
place and  his  own  bathroom  and  dressing-room,  a  sitting-room 
perhaps,  and  one  or  two  closets  —  a  man  and  his  wife  should  each 
have  one.  The  other  members  of  the  family  will  j^robably  not 
have  individual  bathrooms. 

There  should  be  one  bathroom  in  any  case  opening  into  the 
main  hall  for  the  public,  even  if  it  is  ordinarily  private  property. 
It  is  a  good  idea  to  arrange  two  rooms  and  a  bath  at  one  end  of 
the  house  that  can  be  shut  off  from  the  rest  and  used  as  a  suite, 
where,  in  case  of  a  contagious  disease,  the  nurse  may  live  with 
her  patient  in  isolation.  All  the  bedrooms  should  be  plentifully 
supplied  with  closets  having  poles  for  coat-hangers,  a  wide  shelf 
for  ladies'  hats  and  plenty  of  hooks.  A  linen-closet  should  lead 
out  of  the  upper  hall ;  either  a  big  closet  that  one  may  walk  into. 


HOW    TO    PLAN    THE    HOUSE  61 

with  drawers  and  shelves,  or,  if  we  are  pressed  for  room,  merely 
a  series  of  recessed,  deep  shelves  from  floor  to  ceiling,  having 
paneled  drop  fronts  flush  with  the  wall  surface.  This  will  need 
no  other  door.  Such  an  arrangement  will  hold  all  the  linen  that 
most  families  require.  The  shelves,  instead  of  being  solid,  are 
often  formed  of  slats  so  that  fresh  linen  placed  on  them  may 
have  a  further  chance  to  air  and  dry. 

A  matter  which  is  not  ordinarily  given  sufficient  care  in  the 
planning  of  a  bedroom  is  the  consideration  of  wall  space  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  necessary  furniture.  Radiators  are  almost 
as  greedy  of  wall  space  as  windows  and  doors,  and  are  ahcays 
bigger  than  we  planned!  Registers,  too,  have  a  way  of  turning 
up  in  unexpected  places  and  taking  to  themselves  the  most  desir- 
able spot  in  the  room.  It  is  some  satisfaction  to  know  at  least 
that  the  ancient  architects  did  not  get  off  free  on  this  score,  for 
Sir  Henry  Walton,  writing  in  1624,  says,  "  Palladio  observeth 
that  the  Ancients  did  warm  their  rooms  with  certain  secrete  Pijjes 
that  came  through  the  walles  (transporting  heate  as  I  conceive  it) 
to  sundry  parts  of  the  House,  from  one  common  Furnace  —  which 
whether  it  were  a  custom  or  a  delicacie,  was  surely  both  for  thrift 
and  for  use,  far  beyond  the  German  stoves :  and  I  should  pref ere 
it  likewise  before  our  own  fashion,  if  the  very  sight  of  a  fire  did 
not  adde  to  the  Roome  a  kinde  of  Reputation."  We  all  feel  the 
"  Reputation  "  of  such  a  room  and  the  call  of  the  open  fire.  Our 
own  Charles  Dudley  Warner  had  the  same  thing  in  mind  when 
he  deplored  the  cheerful  blaze  gi\'ing  way  to  our  modern  methods, 
and  pictures  the  future  Yuletide  season  when  pater  familias  on 
a  blustering  Christmas  eve  gathers  his  faithful  wife  and  merry 
brood  about  the  —  register!  The  register  and  radiator  are  every- 
where and  it  will  be  hard  enough  to  hold  these  ubiquitous  nui- 
sances in  check  even  when  their  presence  is  anticipated. 

Tlie  problem  of  the  servants'  rooms  is  one  that  often  causes 
much  difficulty.  In  the  medium-sized  house  it  is  usually  necessary 
that  they  have  their  rooms  on  the  third  floor.  The  objection  to 
this  is  the  noise  resulting  from  having  them  over  one's  head. 


62  THE    HALF-TI^IBER    HOUSE 

There  seems  to  be  some  mysterious,  exhilarating  influence  that 
affects  those  who  inhabit  the  third  story,  that  finds  its  outlet  in 
their  dashing  their  boots  to  the  floor.  It  seems  strange  in  this 
age  of  luxurious  living  and  practical  eugenics  that  one-legged 
servants  are  not  bred,  for  on  this  score  at  least  they  would  be  cer- 
tainly twice  as  desirable.  Another  drawback  to  the  third-floor 
servants'  room  is  the  heat  in  summer;  under  the  roof  as  they 
are,  even  with  a  partial  air  space  between  the  ceiling  and  the  roof, 
these  rooms  are  bound  to  be  hot,  especially  at  night  after  the  sun 
has  been  blazing  on  the  roof  all  day. 

A  better  arrangement,  if  we  can  afford  the  space,  is  to  put  the 
servants'  rooms  with  the  bath  on  the  second  floor  over  the  serv'ice 
portion  of  the  first  floor,  and  reached  by  the  back  stairs,  this  group 
of  rooms  being  connected  with  the  rest  of  the  second  floor  by  a 
single  door.  This  brings  their  working  and  sleeping  quarters 
close  together  and  gives  them  more  freedom,  while  the  master's 
portion  of  the  house  is  unconscious  of  their  existence.  This 
arrangement  is  not  a  difficult  one  to  bring  about,  but  the  problem 
is  somewhat  comphcated  if  there  is  a  single  manservant  to  be 
housed.  A  room  on  the  first  floor  in  the  kitchen  wing  is  often  the 
best  solution  here,  but  it  is  a  point  that  should  be  carefully  con- 
sidered for  any  given  case. 


Methods  of  Construction 


IN  Chapter  II  we  followed  the  methods  of  construction  of  the 
half-timber  house  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries, 

during  its  period  of  evolution  and  gro\vth,  at  a  time  when 
the  state  of  civilization  was  very  different  from  what  it  is  to-day 
—  when  the  methods  of  building  were  more  primitive  and  the 
choice  of  materials  much  more  restricted  to  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  work  in  hand.  It  is  true  that  bricks  were  imported  fi'om 
Holland  at  an  early  period,  but  these  were  for  the  palaces  of 
the  nobility  or  the  important  buildings  belonging  to  church  or 
state. 

The  idea  that  these  limitations  in  the  matter  of  tools  or  mate- 
rials was  a  handicap  to  good  work,  from  the  artistic  point  of 
view,  or  that  our  greater  facility  in  these  matters  gives  us  an 
advantage  over  the  earlier  builders,  is  not  at  all  true.  Good  art 
is  not  dependent  on  good  tools ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  quite  inde- 
pendent of  them.  The  limitations  of  these  early  builders  was  in 
reality  a  source  of  strength,  and  a  powerful  aid,  even  if  an  uncon- 
scious one,  to  honesty  and  directness  in  their  work.  They  did 
not  know  the  temptations  which  beset  the  modern  builder,  any 
more  than  they  knew  the  difficulties  that  hamper  the  modern 
designer.  Tliey  were  not  confused  and  diverted  from  the  end  in 
view  by  the  multiplicity  and  complexity  of  the  means  at  their 
disposal.  There  was  only  one  way,  and  not  a  hundred  others 
that  were  "  just  as  good,"  by  which  "  no  one  could  tell  the  differ- 
ence." One  honest  thing,  perfectly  adapted  to  its  o\x\\  special 
use,  was  not  tricked  out  into  imitating  some  other  honest  tiling 
which  happened  to  be  more  expensive.  If  the  work  of  the  early 
builders  was  good,  their  path  at  least  was  not  beset  with  so  many 
temptations  to  dishonesty  at  every  turn.  To-day  the  false  econ- 
omy to  be  secured  by  the  use  of  the  clever  substitute  for  the  real 


G4  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

thing  is  a  pitfall  it  requires  much  strength  of  character  to  avoid. 
We  are  a  little  skeptical  nowadays  about  the  "  gods  seeing  every- 
where," or,  rather,  we  do  not  care  if  they  do,  so  long  as  our  neigh- 
bor, Mr.  Workllywise,  does  not. 

Although  the  time  has  not  yet  arrived  in  this  country  as  in 
Europe,  when  it  is  as  cheai)  to  build  of  brick  or  other  burnt  clay 
products  as  to  build  of  wood,  it  is  not  far  distant.  When  this 
condition  does  exist  it  will  be  a  great  help  to  the  general  arclii- 
tecture  of  this  country,  and  the  appearance  of  flimsiness,  insepar- 
able from  timber  work,  will  give  way  to  the  substantial  impres- 
sion produced  by  the  more  solid  and  enduring  materials. 

The  finical,  emasculated  appearance  which  is  a  character- 
istic of  wood  frame  construction,  is  one  to  which  our  eyes  have 
become  so  accustomed  that  it  is  only  on  returning  from  a  trip 
to  foreign  countries  that  we  are  struck  wth  the  flimsy  appear- 
ance of  our  frame  houses.  There  is  a  beauty  of  wood  and 
another  beauty  of  brick  and  stone,  but  the  latter  are  the  most 
appropriate  and  sensible  for  the  onerous  use  to  which  a  build- 
ing is  put. 

However,  the  time  has  not  yet  arrived  in  any  locality  when 
stone,  or  baked  clay,  covered  with  stucco  or  otherwise,  can  com- 
pete in  first  cost  with  wood  —  convincing  advertising  pamphlets 
from  the  makers  of  clay  products  notwithstanding. 

So  if  we  must,  with  a  sigh,  give  up  the  idea  of  building  our 
house  of  the  more  permanent  materials,  and  turn  to  the  wood 
frame,  let  us  at  least  cover  it  with  something  that  will  give  us  a 
wall  which  at  once  produces  a  plane  surface  of  pleasant  texture 
and  at  the  same  time  is  not  dependent  on  the  paint  brush  for  its 
verj"^  life ;  that  fire  does  not  touch,  that  vines  may  cling  to  Avithout 
harm;  and  that  is  warm  in  winter  and  cool  in  summer.  Stucco 
is  such  a  material.  It  has  the  happy  quality  of  satisfying  the 
l^ractical  man  who  can  live  by  bread  alone,  and  yet  to  whom  we 
thus  give  cake  as  well. 

Now  let  us  look  at  this  method  of  building  our  walls.  In  our 
half -timber  house,  the  walls  between  the  timbers  will  show  stucco, 


i'lu-  {Hiint^  ut  iiitt-rt'sl  on  Hit-  t-\U-rii>r  nf  a  Itou.so  piin  tii  etlci'tivciie^b  b^ 
being  neither  duiuituus  nor  scuttcrcd 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION  65 

and  much  or  all  of  the  rest  of  the  house  will  be  of  the  same 
material  with,  perhaps,  some  brick,  stone  or  siding,  as  the  case 

may  be,  to  give  varietj'  of  color  and  texture. 
Stucco  The  term  "  stucco  "  is  a  loose  one,  but  the  com- 

position when  used  for  outside  plastering,  is  of 
cement,  lime  and  sand  in  varying  proportions.  The  proper 
proportioning  of  these  ingredients,  especially  of  the  lime  and 
cement,  is  a  subject  of  much  controversy  and  hardly  any  two 
plasterers  combine  them  in  the  same  j^roportions.  Tliis  seems 
to  be  matter  that  has  always  been  in  debate  and  even  as  long 
ago  as  the  Middle  Ages  we  find  masons  commonly  mixing 
such  things  as  ox  blood,  beer,  dung,  sugar  and  milk  with  their 
lime. 

The  accounts  for  the  repairs  of  the  steeple  of  Xewark  Church 
in  1571  contain  an  entry, "  6  strike  of  malt  to  make  mortar  to  blend 
with  ye  lyme  and  temper  the  same,  and  350  eggs  to  mix  with  it." 
During  the  building  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  house  at  Chis- 
wick,  the  interior  of  which  was  stucco,  the  surrounding  district 
was  impoverished  for  eggs  and  buttermilk  to  mix  with  the  stucco. 

It  used  to  be  a  common  practice  in  our  southern  states  to  mix 
molasses  with  the  mortar.  The  object  of  most  of  these  admixtures 
was  to  retard  the  set  in  order  to  secure  more  ease  in  manipulation. 
It  is  a  curious  thing  that  a  scientific  formula  to  give  the  best 
results  has  never  been  promulgated,  or  at  least  never  adopted. 
It  is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  strangely  enough 
there  seems  to  be  absolutely  no  authoritative  decision  as  to  what 
constitutes  the  best  mixture  for  the  peculiarly  trying  purpose  for 
which  stucco  is  to  be  used.  While  it  is  not  strange  that  in  a  mat- 
ter where  every  jjlasterer  claims  to  be  an  expert,  there  should  be 
a  wide  divergence  of  oj^inion,  it  does  seem  curious  that  among 
the  really  expert  men  of  established  reputation  who  have  done 
(juantities  of  work,  and  have  years  of  cxi)ericnce  behind  them, 
there  should  not  be  a  conunon  formula  wliich  the  consensus  of 
opinion  would  accept  as  the  best.  It  is,  of  course,  a  matter  in 
which  such  a  formula  can  be  arrived  at  only  empirically;    an 


66  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

opinion  from  the  study  or  the  laboratory  can  carry  httle  weight 
until  it  has  been  given  the  test  of  actual  experience  under  the  con- 
ditions wliich  it  will  be  called  upon  to  meet. 

There  also,  unfortunately,  seems  to  be  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  plasterers  to  treat  the  matter  as  a  trade  secret,  and 
any  statements  that  it  is  possible  to  wring  from  them  carry  such 
involved  and  lengthy  qualifications  and  are  so  contradictory  one 
with  the  other,  that  a  collection  and  comparison  of  hard-won  data 
reveals  such  surprising  discrei^ancies  that  one  wonders  how  any 
of  the  walls  stand.  To  compare  the  results  and  discover  what 
they  have  in  common  in  a  broad,  general  way,  seems  to  be  about 
all  that  one  can  do  towards  giving  a  formula  for  outside  plaster. 

Such  an  average  of  the  best  obtainable  opinion,  then,  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  first  or  "  scratch  "  coat  should  not  have 
over  half  cement  nor  less  than  fifteen  per  cent,  that  the  second 
coat  is  usually  a  little  "  stiffer  "  —  that  is,  that  it  may  have  more 
cement  in  proportion  to  the  lime,  and  that  the  third  coat  or  the 
"  slap-dash  "  will  vary  as  to  the  amount  of  the  cement  according 
to  the  color  which  is  desired  for  the  finish. 

To  introduce  one  of  the  many  qualifications,  we  might  say 
that  there  is  a  school  of  plasterers  who  say  that  in  order  to  have 
the  coats  adhere  perfectlj'  the  one  to  the  other  and  form  a  com- 
pact, homogeneous  mass,  it  is  important  that  all  coats  should  be 
of  exactly  the  same  mixture.  In  order  to  show,  however,  that  we 
have  an  open  mind  in  these  matters,  let  us  give  the  formula  recom- 
mended by  one  of  our  largest  manufacturers  of  expanded  metal 
lath.  "  ]Mix  the  scratch  coat,"  say  they,  "  in  the  proportion  of  one 
part  Portland  cement,  three  and  one-half  parts  sand,  one-half 
part  putty,  made  with  hydrated  lime.  The  second  coat  should 
be  mixed  in  the  proportion  of  one  part  Portland  cement  to  three 
parts  sand,  and  the  finish  coats  one  part  Portland  cement  and 
two  parts  sand.  Lime  putty,  not  exceeding  five  per  cent,  is  often 
used  to  advantage  in  the  finish  coat." 

Another  popular  mixture  calls  for  half  and  half  Portland 
cement  and  lime,  with  four  times  their  combined  volume  of  sand. 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION 


67 


Many  men  use  two  parts  of  lime  to  one  of  cement,  while  others 
vary  the  proportions  in  the  different  coats.  The  tendency  of  the 
honest  plasterer,  new  to  this  kind  of  work,  is  to  put  in  too  much 
cement.  He  argues  that  in  most  other  mason  work  the  more 
Portland  cement  in  the  mortar  used,  the  better  job,  which  is 
generally  true.  The  trouble  with  this  reasoning  is  that  when 
Portland  cement  mortar  is  applied  in  great  sheets  such  as  we 
have  on  the  side  of  a  house,  it  has  not  enough  elasticity.  The 
cement  makes  it  too  rigid  and  brittle,  and  the  changes  of  temper- 


f Cr  "V/v.)    ly  •■  at 


By  courtesy  of  The  ArchUeclitral  Hevietff 


The  most  vulnerable  points  in  a  stucco  wall  are  found  at  the  intersection  of  stucco  and  the 
wood  trim  around  windows  and  other  openings.     The  protection  of  these  points  by  flashing 

cannot  be  too  carefully  done 

ature  or  slight  shrinkages  of  the  building  cause  it  to  crack  or 
perhaps  come  away  altogether.  One  is  rather  forced  into  the 
position,  after  seeing  what  a  chaos  of  opinion  prevails,  revealing 
such  a  total  lack  of  any  real  knowledge  on  the  part  of  these  work- 
men, of  believing  that  it  cannot  after  all  make  very  much  differ- 
ence ichat  his  stucco  is  made  of.  Therefore  it  is  a  very  cheering 
thing  to  be  told  that  such  is  really  the  case!  The  mixture  of  the 
stucco,  we  are  told,  is  really  not  so  important  after  all,  neither 
is  the  kind  or  make  of  the  lath  backing  so  essential;  but  the  really 
necessary  and  important  thing  is  that  the  plaster  coveruig  itself 


68  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

should  at  every  point  of  contact  with  tlie  woodwork,  about  the 
windows,  water-table,  cornice,  posts  and  angles,  be  so  absolutely 
impervious  to  the  entrance  of  water  that  this  arch  foe  of  metal  is 
repulsed  at  every  point,  keejiing  the  metal  upon  wliich  the  plaster 
clings  and  owes  its  suj^jiort  sound  from  rust. 

For  this  reason  it  is  important  that  all  horizontal  timbers  em- 
bedded in  the  plaster,  whether  or  not  they  are  flush  with  the  plas- 
ter face,  be  carefully  flashed  with  metal.  This  applies  to 
water-tables,  tops  of  window-  and  door-casing  as  well  as  to  the 
half-timbering.  The  wider  edge  of  such  timbers  must  have  a  drip 
to  drop  the  water  clear  of  the  wall,  so  as  to  prevent  the  water  run- 
ning down  the  face  of  the  wall. 

The  vertical  pieces  must  have  rabbets  run  on  their  back  edges 
so  that  the  wet  stucco  may  be  forced  into  them  and  so  stop  any 
through  crack  that  might  appear  should  tlie  wood,  in  time,  shrink 
away  from  the  immovable  cement. 

This  stucco  face  can  be  put  on  over  poured  concrete  which 
has  had  its  face  roughened  either  in  the  mold  or  afterwards, 
or  put  on  a  w^all  of  cast  concrete  blocks  which  have  had  their 
faces  corrugated  so  as  to  give  a  clinch  for  the  stucco.  With- 
out some  actual  physical  grip  on  the  face  to  which  stucco  is 
aiijilied,  it  will  not  stick.  It  has  no  adhesive  properties  of  its 
own.  It  may  be  applied  over  a  brick  wall  the  joints  of  which 
have  been  raked  out  so  that  the  stucco  may  be  squeezed  in,  and 
the  bricks  in  this  case  should  be  hard  baked  and  even  rough  and 
twisted.  It  maj'  be  apphed  over  terra  cotta  blocks  w^hich  have 
been  molded  with  a  key  on  the  face,  or  in  fact  over  anytliing  that 
will  give  the  necessary  grip  for  the  mortar. 

JVIuch  of  our  modern  work  is  applied  over  a  wall  of  wooden 
studs,  and  is  ordinarily  done  in  the  following  manner:  The 
wall  is  framed  with  studs  wliich  are  placed  on  the  sill  or  girts  and 
boarded  on  the  outside  exactly  as  for  a  shingled  or  clapboarded 
house.  Over  the  boards  on  the  outside  is  nailed  one,  or  better, 
two  thicknesses  of  some  damp-proof  building  jiaper  with  all  the 
joints  between  the  sheets  well  lapped.     Furring  strijis  of  wood. 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION 


69 


one  inch  square,  are  then  nailed  vertically  nine  inches  on  centres. 
Over  this  one-half  inch  wire  mesh  is  stretched  —  better  galvanized 
after  it  is  wo\en  —  and  securely  fastened  with  galvanized  staples 
to  each  strip. 

We  are  now  ready  for  the  stucco.    Some  plasterers  prefer  the 


Me'Du  -La.ti-e^s'Ened^toT-Iron^Fuj^ 

RnSIG*<&^CE^€NT-  PLASrERZI>0ll3I]D< 
flNlSH^AFODRNICE.- 


Corni<:e 
&e<lmoul<l 

JJrvp 
•  Cement  J'bxJLar- 

■  Tar  Poper 
MetaiLath. 

■  T-lrof\.vr 
»5tople,  Ta-rtu\jcJ-s. 

"WaU-  E>oarcltrta 
•\St.-u.dj 


rc.ft 


Roof 
Boarding 

?Latc 


Co  »vt.raction. 
Lap  of  Cornift 

•Top   ofExttf- 
ioc-  Plajtertna- 


One  'way- 01 
Jtaplelng 


^y  courtrsy  of  The  Architectural  Review 
A  detail  of  the  wall  and  cornice  where  nietil  lath  on  T-irons  was  used  upon 
the  outside  of  the  sheathing 

furrings  put  on  horizontally,  as  they  say  it  enables  them  to  stretch 
their  wire  up  and  down  tighter,  but  it  seems  to  the  author  that  any 
settlement  of  the  frame  will  be  more  likely  to  bring  the  horizontal 
strips  to  wiiich  the  wire  is  fastened  closer  together,  and  thus  cause 
a  slight  buckling,  than  is  the  case  when  the  strips  are  vertical,  and 
such  shrinkage  of  llie  wall  boards  and  settlement  of  the  frame 
can  not  shorten  the  strips  which  run  from  top  to  bottom  and  are 
themselves  the  frame  that  really  sujiports  the  stucco  face. 


70 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 


Sometimes  the  manufacturers  make  a  metal  V-  or  T-shaped 
channel  which  is  to  be  used  instead  of  the  wood  furring,  and  this 
no  doubt  is  good  when  properly  applied.  It  is  stapled  in  place 
through  a  slot  in  the  metal  which  allows  of  slight  movement  up 
and  down,  should  there  be  a  settlement.  The  lath  is  wired  to  this 
metal.  Instead  of  the  wire  mesh,  expanded  metal  is  often  used, 
but  it  is  not  holding  its  own  in  popular  favor.  The  danger  of 
trouble  with  stucco  applied  over  a  metal  lath  instead  of  on  brick 
or  concrete  is  that  the  metal  may  rust  away  in  time  and  the  stucco 


'PLA^m^ON-LAmCED^WDP-lATI' 


rci 


fCi>/Cr. 


By  courtfsy  of  The  ArchUectwal  EevUw 
(a)  There  are  those  who  claim   that  the   use    (b)   Extremely  sharp   corners   are   neither 
of  diagonal  wood  lath  is  as  good  as,  or  per-    necessary  nor  desirable  on   stucco  walls, 
haps  better  than,  metal  as  a  support  for  the    There  is  a  metal  corner-bead  that  helps  to 
stucco  preserve  a  true  edge 

fall  off  in  great  slabs.  The  users  of  the  ^vire  mesh  claim  that  the 
first  coat  of  mortar  if  properly  apphed  squeezes  through  the  mesh, 
falls  over  behind  and  thus  completely  embeds  the  wire  and  pro- 
tects it  from  any  dampness  that  through  any  inadvertence  may 
have  found  its  way  back  of  the  stucco.  It  is  claimed  that,  while 
the  expanded  metal  is  stronger  and  stiffer,  it  is  harder  to  effect 
this  embedding  process,  and  that  rust  makes  little  of  its  extra  bidk 
and  strength  once  it  finds  an  opening  for  attack. 

We  might  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  at  this  point  to  a 
fact  wliich  constitutes  one  of  the  very  strongest  claims  of  stucco 


METHODS    OF   CONSTRUCTIOX  71 

and  wood  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  prospective  house- 
builder.  Whether  the  lathing  be  one  sort  or  another,  and  what- 
ever be  the  formula  for  the  composition  of  our  stucco,  we  obtain 
for  our  wall  the  very  great  advantage  of  two  dead-air  spaces  in 
its  thickness.  These  dead-air  spaces  constitute  a  most  valuable 
insulation,  not  only  against  dampness  but,  what  is  of  more  un- 
portance,  a  very  efficient  protection  against  changes  of  tempera- 
ture, which  fact  tends  to  jjroduce  a  cooler  house  in  hot  weather 
and  a  warmer  house  in  cold  weather. 

The  first  air  space  is  that  between  the  inside  plaster  on  its 
wooden  or  metal  lath  fastened  to  the  inside  of  the  studs,  and  the 
boarding  on  the  outside.  This  space  of  course  we  find  in  every 
frame  house,  no  matter  what  the  outside  covering.  The  second 
space,  peculiar  to  this  method  of  work,  is  that  between  the  outside 
boarding  with  its  paper  covering,  and  the  back  of  the  outside 
stucco  which  is  held  away  one  inch  by  the  thickness  of  the  furring 
strips.    We  thus  get  a  double  hollow  wall. 

Because  of  this  possibility  of  rust  in  metal  lath  of  any  form 
there  are  those  who  stoutly  maintain  that  exterior  wooden  lath 
on  furrings  is  just  as  good  if  not  better  than  metal,  as  it  avoids 
this  possibility  of  disaster. 

There  is  another  method  that  is  often  used  and  which  has 
its  staunch  supporters,  and  is  the  cheapest  for  buildings  that  are 
not  too  large.  This  method  consists  in  ai)plying  the  metal  lath 
directly  to  the  studs  —  and  when  this  is  done  an  expanded  metal 
of  some  little  stiffness  should  be  used  and  the  studs  be  placed 
nearer  together  than  in  the  first  method  and  cross  braced  twice 
in  a  story's  height.  Xine  inches  on  centre  is  about  the  right  spac- 
ing for  the  ordinary  two-story  house.  If  the  house  is  high  and, 
in  consequence,  demands  greater  stiffness,  we  shall  sadly  miss  the 
outside  boarding  with  its  added  strength  and  protection  against 
racking  which  it  is  bound  to  afford.  Again,  the  necessity  of 
placing  the  studs  nearer  tv)gether,  nearly,  if  not  quite,  offsets  the 
saving  which  has  been  effected  by  eliminating  the  boarding. 

One  of  the  strongest  points  in  favor  of  tliis  method  is  that 


72 


THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 


after  we  have  plastered  the  outside  of  the  lath  we  go  inside  and 
l)laster  directly  on  the  hack  side  of  the  same  lath  between  each 
pair  of  studs.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  way  we  get  the  metal 
entirely  embedded  in  the  cement,  at  least  theoretically.  In  prac- 
tice, however,  the  inevitable  shrinkage  of  the  stud  will  in  time 
open  a  small  crack  where  the  two  come  together,  and  although 


•ME'IAL^LAm^FA5'EJ€D*TO*5TUD^'  S^ 
'PKO'EC'ED^Br^PlAJER^&Nl.SIDE^^OUT 


■  Back  PLojte-ruig  ^^tui 

•  betwear.-  >Stiid^.  ( 

.  on.  uintr  _fac<  o,' 

Lotfi 
Metal  LaL 
■to-receivt 
Exterior 

Plitster  Coats  ^^ 

:Woodtti-    , 
•  WdterToble 

■  Upper  Wentber 
.JUshed  b<KJt 

•  belund  PU»tcr 

•  Lover  Taeurc 

•  coveritigdown. 
over  Kjundatton, 


IntirtoT  WooA  Lathi- 
- — iTCterior  Hou^e  Plaiter 

/f^^\y^  .Sbui 


rc.^ 


Jfetnp  oj-.open- 
ina  joint  coux 
fd  jby  J  kiinkoae 
-iv.  VAdtA-  o^  thjft 
iStixd  ■  pulUno  ■ 
au/ay  from.  -CKe 
IntfertorPWter 
protection. 


iilL 


3TfliHi»^over- 
•Water  Table 


By  courtesy  of  The  ArchUeclural  Rfx-iew 
The  method  of  fastening  metal  lath  directly  to  the  studs  and  then  plastering 
on  both  sides  of  this  support.     There  is  a  disadvantage  in  the  loss  of  a 

dead-air  space 


this  is  of  course  on  the  inside,  and  has  the  whole  tliickness  of  the 
outside  coat  still  between  it  and  the  weather,  it  is  not  quite  fair 
to  say  that  the  metal  is  hermetically  sealed.  Any  Avet  that  may 
have  got  behind  from  some  cause  or  other,  such  as  the  careless 
junction  between  a  bit  of  outside  finish  and  the  stucco  coat  may 
still  search  it  out.  There  can  be  no  question,  however,  but  that 
the  protection  is  much  more  nearly  perfect  than  in  the  other 
method.    This  inside  back  plastering  must  of  course  be  done  be- 


"The  Gables,"  Tlirlwall,  l'Jij;laiul,  (uu-  nl  tin-  fiiitiparatu  rl_N    lew  iiunK-rti  lnui.srs  wlicre 
the  timbering  is  so\u\  itiul  extc-iiiling  the  full  iK-|>th  uf  the  wall 


.-5S^' 


Another  view  of  "  The  Gables."     Were  it  not  that  the  timbering  has  been  kept  light  in 
color  the  contrast  of  so  nuich  pattern  would  be  far  less  satisfactory 


One  of  the  strongest  features  of  the  design  is  the  straightforward, 
sturdy  treatment  of  the  chimneys 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION 


73 


fore  the  inside  lathing  is  nailed  in  place.  By  this  method  we 
also  lose  one  of  our  precious  dead-air  spaces,  which  are  really  one 
of  the  very  strongest  utilitarian  arguments  in  favor  of  covering 
our  house  with  stucco.  It  should  be  said,  before  leaving  this 
subject,  that  the  danger  of  trouble  with  metal  lath  is  not  great, 
as  the  process  is  understood  nowadays,  and  the  stories  of  the 
failure  of  such  work  are  of  cases  usually  of  some  years  back, 
before  this  work  was  as  well  understood  as  it  is  to-day.     Even 


^PLAJTEl^'ON-HOLLOW-TlLE' 


Terra  Coita. 
Tile 


Pidjier 


Terra  cotta  blocks  are  beginning  to  compete  seriously  with  wood  construc- 
tion and  will  no  doubt  soon  be  the  less  expensive  form 

now,  however,  it  is  not  every  })lasterer  that  may  be  entrusted  with 
this  outside  plastering,  and  we  ought  to  be  slow  to  take  a  man's 
own  word  for  his  competence  without  some  more  convincing  proof 
of  his  ability. 

But  it  is  a  question  how  much  longer  this  method  of  ai)ply- 
ing  stucco  over  a  wooden  frame  will  continue  in  vogue,  as  the 
difference  in  cost  of  building  a  house  having  the  outside  walls 
of  wood  covered  with  stucco,  and  of  terra  cotta  covered  with 
the  same  material,  is  becoming  less  every  day.  Wliile  lumber 
is  showing  a  steady  and  natural  tendency  from  year  to  year  to 
advance  in  price,  the  burnt-clay  products  are  gradually  becom- 


74  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

ing  not  only  cheaper  but  more  widely  distributed,  better  kno\vn, 
and  much  improved  in  every  way. 

A  committee  of  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  recently 
investigated  the  subject  of  the  comparative  cost  of  building,  and 
their  conclusions  are  of  interest.  A  set  of  plans  of  a  house  which 
had  already  been  erected  was  submitted  to  five  different  contrac- 
tors and  their  estimates  were  then  averaged  for  purposes  of  com- 
parison. This  average  estimate  for  a  frame  building  covered  with 
clapboards  was  $6759.95.  The  average  increase  in  cost  for  other 
methods  was  as  follows : 

Peb  Cent. 

Stucco  on  frame 2.92 

Brick  veneer  on  studding 5.83 

Stucco  on  hollow  blocks 6.34 

Brick  veneer  on  boarding 6.95 

Ten-inch  brick  wall,  hollow 9.16 

Brick  veneer  on  hollow  block 10.77 

AVhile  these  increases  were  no  doubt  correct  for  the  house  under 
discussion  we  seldom  in  practice  find  these  increases  so  slight 
as  here  given. 

Of  course  there  are  other  things  for  the  builder  who  is  chiefly 
interested  hi  economy  to  consider  besides  the  first  cost.  There  is 
the  matter  of  upkeep  and  of  fire  protection.  Stucco  on  a  wooden 
stud  is  the  most  fireproof  material  with  wliich  one  can  cover  a 
frame  house.  The  matter  of  repairs  and  upkeep  is  reduced  to  a 
minimimi.  There  is  no  outside  painting  to  be  done  except  for  the 
small  amount  of  wood  trim,  and  the  wall  itself  requires  absoluteh' 
no  care,  whether  the  stucco  is  applied  over  a  wood  frame  or  over 
some  form  of  burnt  clay. 

So  much  for  the  backing  of  our  stucco  wall.  Now  as  to  the 
application  of  the  stucco  itself.  The  work  should  be  put  on  in 
three  coats,  the  first  mixed  with  hair  and  troweled  well  into  the 
lath  or  wall  and  "  scratched."  The  second  coat  is  troweled  on 
after  the  first  is  dry,  and  the  third  or  last  coat  troweled  on,  leav- 
ing it  rough  mth  the  trowel  marks  showing  here  and  there,  not 
too  ostentatiously.    If  the  plasterer  is  told  to  leave  the  marks  of 


METHODS    OF   CONSTRUCTIOX  75 

his  trowel  he  will,  if  his  ideas  of  a  good  job  will  permit  him  to  do 
it  at  all,  laboriously  and  regularly  let  each  sweep  of  the  trowel  be 
as  distinct  as  it  is  possible,  and  even  tlien  these  sweeps,  which  ordi- 
narily have  a  certain  pleasant  freedom,  will  be  cramped  and  tunid 
because  of  his  self-consciousness.  If  we  wish  it  smooth  from  the 
trowel  he  will  glory  in  making  it  a  perfect  mathematical  plane, 
with  all  the  corners  sharp  and  true.  A  more  popular  and  better 
way  than  either  is  to  make  the  last  coat  what  is  known  as  "  slap- 
dash," or  "  pebble-dash."  This  is  done  by  using  a  very  thin  mix- 
ture, of  the  consistency  of  heavy  cream,  with  which  has  been  mixed 
coarse  sand  containing  small  stones  about  the  size  that  will  pass 
through  a  one-eighth-inch  mesh.  This  is  taken  out  on  a  piece  of 
board  about  the  size  of  a  slungle  and  thrown  against  the  house 
with  some  force  and  left  untouched.  A  broom  of  twigs  is  some- 
times used  instead  of  a  paddle,  this  being  dipped  in  the  liquid 
which  is  then  thro^^Ti  on.  The  result  is  a  very  rough  siu'face  of 
marked  and  pleasant  texture.  This  last  coat  may  be  colored  be- 
fore it  is  thrown  on  so  that  the  pigment  is  part  of  the  coating  and 
gives  a  practically  permanent  color.  A  little  yellow  ochre  gives 
a  pleasant  wall,  if  just  enough  is  added  to  make  an  old-ivory  color 
—  enough  to  take  off  the  coldness  of  pure  white  which  the  large 
amount  of  lime  in  the  last  coat  will  give  if  it  is  left  untouched. 
There  shoidd  not  be  enough  to  make  it  look  yellow,  unless  for 
some  reason  tliis  is  desired.  Pinks  and  grays  and  blues  may  also 
be  had.  These  pigments  must  be  earth  or  mineral  coloring  mat- 
ter, and  their  free  use  is  restricted  only  by  the  fact  that  when  used 
in  large  quantities  they  tend  to  weaken  the  cement  mixture,  acting 
as  inert  matter,  much  as  does  clay  or  loam  if  it  is  allowed  to  get 
into  the  mortar  bed.  Vegetable  colors  are  to  be  avoided,  as  the 
action  of  the  lime  seems  to  vitiate  them  and  the  sun  still  fui-ther 
fades  and  alters  the  original  cohir.  While  the  weakening  effect 
on  our  stucco  by  tlie  use  of  mineral  coloring  matter  is  so  slight 
in  the  ordinary  use  of  color  as  to  be  negligible,  there  are  methods 
of  getting  color  which  do  not  detract  even  so  much  from  the 
strength  of  the  set.    In  the  first  place  we  may,  instead  of  mixing 


76  THE    IIALF-TI^IBER    HOUSE 

our  pigment  into  the  body  of  the  mortar,  a^Dply  it  to  the  surface 
of  the  last  coat  when  it  is  still  wet,  as  a  surface  coloring.  This 
may  be  done  by  a  blower  of  some  sort  or  by  being  washed  on  witli 
a  brush.  Tliis  is  not  a  method  that  is  much  used,  and  the  neces- 
sarily imperfect  hold  which  the  jwwder  will  have  on  the  stucco, 
together  with  the  difficulty  of  getting  anything  like  an  even  distrib- 
ution of  pigment,  and  the  consequent  uneven  and  blotchy  effect 
of  the  resulting  wall,  are  inherent  weaknesses  in  its  use.  A  better 
way  than  this,  if  we  should  want  a  pink  or  brown  or  yellow  wall, 
would  be  to  mix  in  the  proper  amount  of  brick  dust  in  the  last 
coat  to  produce  the  desired  shade  of  color.  In  the  same  way  con- 
siderable effect  can  be  obtained  by  using  colored  pebbles  and  sand 
in  the  finish  coat.  This  will  not  affect  the  strength  of  our  mix- 
ture, and  there  are,  of  course,  many  other  materials  of  the  same 
general  character  that  are  available  in  the  same  way  and  which 
will  increase  the  range  of  colors  at  our  disposal.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  cement  alone  is  of  a  cold  gray  color  that  does  not 
form  a  good  body  color  for  our  tints.  They  lose  their  clearness 
and  individuality  in  the  partnershii^,  of  wliich  the  pigment  is  too 
often  the  silent  member.  It  is  of  course  impossible  for  any  but 
the  practised  plasterer  to  tell  what  color  will  resiUt  from  any 
given  proportion  of  admixture,  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that 
samjiles  of  considerable  size  be  prepared  and  applied  to  some 
wall  in  the  same  manner  and  showing  the  same  surface  textiu'e 
as  it  is  proposed  to  finish  the  wall  under  treatment.  Again,  this 
must  be  looked  at  only  after  it  has  had  plenty  of  time  to  set  and 
di'y;  then  only  can  the  final  color  be  seen.  Tliis  should  be  con- 
sidered in  sun  and  shadow,  wet  and  dry,  and  wloile  the  pigment 
will  not  itself  probably  fade  or  change,  the  natural  darkening 
which  will  result  from  the  rough  walls  collecting  dust  and  dirt 
as  time  goes  on,  must  also  be  taken  into  accomit.  Pure  white, 
light  j'ellows,  or  soft  pinks  may  be  best  obtained  if  there  is  a 
goodly  proportion  of  lime  in  the  last  coat;  that  is,  if  it  largely 
predominates  over  the  cement.  Lime  is  naturally  an  almost  pure 
white,  and  an  excellent  foundation  for  the  production  of  clear. 


A  tniL'  half  tinibiT  house  in  process  of  constnictioii 


?i '[  r-  ^^  »^l >! V V 'HI  ^^ 


The  use  of  solid  timbers  exleiuliii);  throujfli  the  walls  is,  hiTe  in  Aiiierieii,  iilmnst  out  of 
the  question  beeause  of  the  eost  both  iif  the  timbers  uiid  the  lalx>r  required 


-a 
4 


o 


METHODS    OF    COXSTRUCTIOX  77 

unaggressive  tints,  free  from  the  sodden,  muddy  look  of  which  it 
is  so  hard  to  get  rid  when  cement  alone  or  in  large  proportions  is 
present. 

If  it  is  argued  that  adding  too  much  lime  will  not  give  the 
hardness  or  the  toughness  that  is  desired,  and  that  only  Portland 
cement  will  give,  we  may  then  use  white  cement  which  is  a  com- 
paratively new  brand,  having  the  same  strength  as  the  ordinary 
Portland  cement,  and  of  a  pure  dazzling  whiteness.  The  only 
drawback  to  its  more  extensive  use  at  present  is  the  cost,  which 
is  several  times  that  of  the  old  Portland  cement. 

It  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  warn  the  builder  against 
Rosendale  cement,  as  its  use  is  now  practically  abandoned  every- 
where, and  the  cheapness,  availability  and  infinite  superiority  of 
Portland  cement  for  everj'  purpose  where  a  cement  is  used  has 
driven  it  from  the  market. 

For  our  half-timber  work  there  are  several  methods  which  are 
common.  In  England  to-day  it  is  quite  usual  to  pursue  much  the 
same  methods  that  the  joiners  of  the  old  days  followed.  The  big 
honest  timbers,  often  hand-hewn  on  the  very  land  of  the  owners 
of  the  future  house,  are  doweled  and  pinned  in  place  with  oak 
pins  and  the  "  daub,"  a  little  more  scientifically  mixed,  no  doubt, 
is  filled  in  between.  Many  of  the  building  laws  of  the  local  gov- 
erning boarils,  however,  demand  nine  inches  of  brick  wall  as  a 
backing  to  these  timbers.  In  this  country,  where  our  climate  is 
more  severe  than  in  England,  we  must  take  additional  precau- 
tions against  the  weather  and  not  fail  to  carry  at  least  some  por- 
tion of  our  wall  back  of  the  half-timbers,  thus  obviating  any 
cliance  of  joints  opening  and  acting  as  a  channel  to  the  enemy 
water.  The  illustration  facing  page  76  shows  a  house  of  this 
sort  in  the  process  of  construction.  Facing  page  .50  is  a  photo- 
graj)h  of  a  house  built  by  Mr.  Ilarrison-Townsend,  who  says  that 
the  half-timbers  used  here  were  old  railroad  sleepers  taken  and 
used  just  as  they  lay.  One  may  imagine  the  beautiful  color  and 
texture,  and  tiie  imj)ression  of  primitive  strength  tliat  is  always 
so  satisfying.     The  longer  horizontal  timbers  were  pieces  of  old 


78  THE    HxVLF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

staging,  equally  rough,  and  stained  with  those  particularly  fast 
colors  of  which  nature  alone  knows  the  secret.  In  the  same  way 
Englishmen  are  fond  of  using  old  roof  tile  and  slate  which  they 
buy  from  the  owners  of  old  cottage  roofs,  usually  by  offering  to 
replace  these  roofs  with  brand-new  ones,  much  as  we  have  heard 
of  furniture  collectors  in  this  country  exchanging  a  new  varnished 
chair  for  old  Chipjjendales  in  the  rural  districts.  This  use  of  old 
material  for  the  sake  of  its  atmosphere,  for  work  of  our  character, 
is  one  of  the  great  lessons  that  the  present-day  English  archi- 
tects have  to  teach  us.  But  after  the  arcliitect  has  learned  the 
lesson  he  will  still  have  the  task  of  educating  the  client.  It  is 
strange  that  nothing  is  easier  than  to  find  people  who  would 
admire  houses  of  this  sort  immensely,  but  yet  who  would  hesitate 
and  gasp  if  told  that  part  of  the  price  of  such  charm  and  sim- 
plicity is  the  using  of  battered,  second-hand  lumber.  "  But  what 
would  the  neighbors?"  etc.  The  English  understand  the  inde- 
scribable charm  that  hangs  like  a  perfimie  about  old  things,  even 
if  they  are  but  fragments  of  old  things,  like  our  battered  timbers. 
The  richness  that  goes  with  mild  decay  speaks  to  the  sensitive 
man  as  the  new,  characterless  stuff  without  experiences  or  memo- 
ries of  its  own  can  never  do.  The  o^vner  does  not  like  to  pay  just 
as  much  for  old,  battered,  second-hand  stuff  as  for  the  new,  clean, 
straight  stock,  and  yet  such  charming  houses  as  that  facing  page 
30  owe  their  elusive  charm  to  the  texture  and  color  which  belong 
to  the  old  tile,  unplaned  siding,  and  rough  sticks.  We  pay  enor- 
mous prices  for  antiques  to  put  into  our  houses.  Why  should  we 
not  build  them  in  and  make  of  them  the  warp  and  woof  of  our 
home?  Whatever  be  the  reason  of  their  appeal,  we  may  safely 
leave  the  explanation  to  the  professors  of  esthetics;  the  fact  is 
enough  for  us  that  the  subtle  charm  and  beauty  of  such  houses, 
built  in  this  way,  is  undeniable  and  is  felt  by  the  most  cai'eless 
observer.  If  we  are  wise  we  will  see  if  there  is  not  something 
here  that  we  maj'  learn  to  our  profit  even  if  the  esoteric  psycho- 
logical reasons  are  hidden  from  our  understanding  and  we  work 
empirically  in  the  true  artistic  fashion. 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION 


79 


The  usual  criticism  of  the  use  of  modern  half-timber  work, 
namely  that  it  is  impossible  to  build  new  houses  with  the  charm 
which  we  admire  so  much  in  old  ones,  because  such  charm  is  pri- 
marily due  to  their  age  with  its  incident  effects,  is  not  a  just  one. 


>S  HEATHING 
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PlAJrBH 


JTUO 


INTEHIO-R, 


JTRA  Pf/VG 


A  Teiy  common  substitute  for  whole-timber  oonstruetion  is  the  use  of  a  rabbeted 
plank  pluntud  ujKin  the  outside  of  the  sheathing 


It  is  true  that  we  cannot  rejiroduce,  nor  would  we  wish  to  try, 
the  pleasant  air  of  general  dilapidation  so  much  more  delightful 
to  look  at  than  to  live  with.  We  may,  however,  obtain  the  general 
sense  of  beauty,  picturesqueness,  and,  above  all,  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  home  feeling  wiiich  by  unconscious  atavism  so  fills  the 


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METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION  81 

heart  of  the  exiled  descendants  of  English  blood  in  the  presence 
of  these  wonderful  cottages.  It  is  the  "  Home  sweet  home  "  that 
we  have  never  seen,  but  our  hearts  are  the  touchstone  that  prompt 
our  slower  brains.  Such  houses  as  those  shown  facing  pages  73 
and  77  are  all  new,  all  perfectly  tight,  warm  and  practical.  They 
may  have  vacuum  cleaners  and  wireless  telephones  for  aught  we 
know,  but  they  have  not  lost  the  charm  that  so  often  slips  through 
the  fingers  of  the  most  up-to-date  builder  or  painstaking  writer  of 
specifications. 

There  is  another  method  of  building  our  half-timber  walls  that 
is  less  satisfactory  from  the  esthetic  point  of  view,  but  which  is 
nevertheless  a  good  substitute  as  far  as  appearance  and  practical 
service  is  concerned.  This  is  the  use,  when  we  are  dealing  with 
a  frame  house,  of  a  rabbeted  plank  planted  on  the  furring  thus 
formhig  our  "  half-timber."  The  plaster  filhng  is  between,  ap- 
plied on  the  metal  lath,  the  rabbet  on  the  back  of  the  stick  helping 
to  secure  tightness.  These  planks  are  sometimes  secured  in  place 
after  the  first  coat  of  plaster  is  on,  the  other  two  coats  filling  up 
the  space  flush  or  nearly  flush  with  the  face  of  the  planks.  This 
is  the  common  method  in  vogue  and  while  not  comparable  to  the 
use  of  real  sticks  of  timber  with  the  attendant  knots  and  checks, 
may  be  made  an  acceptable  substitute  if  we  take  care  to  avoid 
hard  edges  and  corners,  and  either  have  the  faces  hand-hewn  with 
the  adze,  or  use  the  planks  "  mill-faced,"  that  is,  with  the  rough, 
furry  marks  of  the  circular  saw  still  in  evidence  and  not  touched 
by  a  plane  or  smoothed  in  any  way.  And,  above  everything  else, 
they  must  not  be  touched  with  lead  and  oil  paint.  The  wood 
should  either  be  treated  with  some  of  the  patent  liquid  wood 
preservatives  on  the  market,  or  given  two  coats  of  raw  linseed 
oil,  which  will  serve  as  an  excellent  preservative  against  rot  if 
brushed  over  about  as  often  as  one  would  })aint  outside  wood- 
work. To  work  in  such  a  rough,  masculine  way  as  we  have  done 
up  to  this  point,  and  then  to  cover  our  honest  wood  with  such 
a  smug,  artificial  thing  as  a  coat  of  paint  would  be  a  great  error 
in  conmion  sense  and  taste.    The  key  which  we  strike  at  the  out- 


82  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

set  must  set  the  pitch  for  the  entire  work,  and  consistency  is  as 
vahiable  a  jewel  here  as  elsewhere. 

In  laying  out  the  design  of  these  half-timbered  walls  it  is 
always  well  to  remember  that  we  are  handling  a  very  vigorous  and 
aggressive  form  of  decoration,  whatever  else  it  may  be.  It  should 
be  labeled,  "  Dangerous  —  Handle  with  care."  It  is  sure  to  arro- 
gate to  itself  the  lion's  share  of  attention,  and  so  must  be  used 
carefully  and  with  due  restraint.  It  is  valuable  and  should  be 
handled  as  if  it  were  a  jewel  —  as  a  precious  thing.  It  should  be 
used  to  i^roduce  an  accent,  a  high  light  in  the  picture.  Tliis 
aspect  of  half-timbered  walls  has  never  seemed  to  be  duly  appre- 
ciated in  modern  work.  The  timbering  is  often  seen  spread 
evenly  over  the  four  walls  of  a  house  from  top  to  bottom,  so 
that  its  chief  value  and  charm,  its  contrast  with  less  exciting  wall 
surfaces,  is  entirely  lost.  To  accent  one  word  in  a  sentence  gives 
force,  to  accent  all  gives  none. 

In  pictorial  art  this  point  is  well  exemplified  in  the  sketches 
of  the  greatest  of  all  modern  pen-and-ink  artists,  the  Spaniard 
Vierge.  Their  life  and  sparkle  are  largely  due  to  the  one  or 
two  small  patches  of  solid  black  which  he  is  careful  to  introduce 
somewhere  among  his  middle  tones.  They  give  an  accent,  a 
snap  to  the  whole  where  their  more  generous  use  would  produce 
a  result  at  once  flat  and  conmionplace. 

The  modern  houses  shown  facing  pages  21  and  59  are  ex- 
amples of  the  sparing  use  of  half-timber.  In  the  first  it  is  used 
to  glorify  the  front  entrance  of  the  house,  in  the  second  as  a  point 
of  interest  against  the  foil  afforded  by  the  plain  walls  about  it. 

It  was  common  in  roofing  the  dormers  and  gables  to  project 
the  roof  over  the  walls  a  foot  or  so  in  order  to  protect  the  walls  be- 
low from  the  weather.  The  projection  was  greater  in  the  earlier 
work,  and  receded  for  some  reason  or  other  as  time  went  on,  until 
we  find  the  barge-board  which  formed  the  outer  finish  of  the  over- 
hang flat  against  the  wall.  In  the  best  work  much  care  and  in- 
genuity were  expended  in  the  decoration  of  these  barge-boards, 
or  verge-boards,  as  they  are  sometimes  called.    Many  beautiful 


■X.     ;, 


n 


It  is  a  relevation  to  those  of  us  who  are  aeeustoined  to  machine  work  on  every  hand  to  see 
the  enri<hnient  of  detail  on  even  the  simplest  English  cottage  of  an  eaHier  age 


METHODS    OF    CONSTRUCTION  83 

examples  still  remain  of  the  piercing  in  trefoil  cusps,  which  are 
carved  and  played  with  bj'  the  ingenious  carpenters,  who  treated 
them  in  much  the  same  way  that  old  Izaak  Walton  tells  us  to 
treat  the  frog  with  which  we  are  baiting  our  hook,  when  he  says, 
"  Handle  him  as  if  you  loved  him."  The  finial  against  which 
the  barge-boards  abut  at  the  top  is  also  a  favorite  object  of  the 
carver's  attention. 

Siding,  much  like  our  own  clapboards,  is  much  used  in  Eng- 
land on  wall  gables  to  obtain  a  variety  of  effect.  The  best  wood 
for  this  is  elm,  for  though  it  twists  and  warps,  tliis  does  no  harm, 
as  we  are  relying  on  it  only  to  throw  off  the  rain  and  not  to 
keep  out  the  cold.  It  is  sawn  rough  and  the  natural  edge  some- 
times left  untouched,  and,  with  nothing  more  done  to  it  than 
to  add  a  coat  of  oil,  will  take  on  a  soft  silvery  hue,  most  har- 
monious with  the  other  material  and  the  surrounding  fohage. 


Exterior  Details 


THERE   will  probably  never  again   be  a  roof  covering 
for  a  small  house  quite  as  beautiful  as  thatch.     We  say 
"  again  "  because  thatch  is  doomed.    Its  utilitarian  objec- 
tions are  too  many. 

Its  dampness  and  consequent  rotting  make  it 
Thatch  unsanitary.     It  is  always  invested  with  vermin; 

it  is  apt  to  leak  after  a  prolonged  spell  of  dry 
weather;  and  the  danger  of  fire  is  very  great  and  ever  present. 

In  England  its  use  has  been  legislated  against,  so  that  where 
building  laws  are  operative  it  is  forbidden.  Thatching  is  be- 
coming a  lost  art,  and  in  this  country  it  is  rarely  that  a  man 
can  be  found  who  understands  how  to  do  it.  What  little  has 
been  done  here  has  been  of  a  small  and  j^layful  character,  as 
garden  houses,  children's  play-houses  and  the  like.  With  a  sigh, 
then,  we  will  pass  on  to  more  practical  methods  of  keeping  out 
the  rain. 

In  England  they  are  fortunate  in  being  able  to  get  hand- 
made tile.     These  are  infinitely  preferable  to  the  tile  we  get  in 

this  countrj'  with  their  even  color  and  hard,  flat. 
Tile  and  machine-made  look.  Old  tile  are  also  often  used. 
Shingles  If  the  use  of  old  tile  needs  any  apology  we 

have  it  in  their  superiority  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  practical  man.  Their  age  has  somehow  or  other  made 
them  weather-tight  and  they  are  soft  and  porous  enough  for 
hchen  to  cover  them,  that  silvery  fungus  to  which,  Ruskin 
beautifully  said,  "  slow  fingered,  constant  hearted,  is  entrusted 
the  weaving  of  the  dark  eternal  tapestries  of  the  hills."  To 
coax  lichen  to  our  new  tile  will  mean  that  we  must  make  them  so 
soft  and  porous  that  they  will  not  for  a  long  time  be  damp-proof; 
to  make  them  hard  enough  to  resist  the  weather  will  be  to  con- 


EXTERIOR   DETAILS  85 

demn  them  to  carry  their  ghttering  surfaces  fresh  and  raw  to 
the  end.  Then,  hand-made  tile  have  a  shght  concave  curve  in 
their  width  which  is  of  great  aid  in  throwing  off  the  water.  Ma- 
chine tile,  for  ease  in  packing  and  transportation,  are  made  as 
flat  as  a  hoard.  The  dry,  thin,  desiccated-looking  tile  roofs  which 
we  see  all  about  us  have  about  as  much  real  charm  and  character 
as  the  machines  that  make  them.  However,  we  are  getting  past 
this  stage  and  better  tile  are  now  coming  on  the  market.  Whether 
it  is  that  the  machines  are  being  perfected  and  have  added  the 
sujireme  "  art  that  conceals  art,"  or  whether  the  clumsy  inaccu- 
rate hand  of  man  is  allowed  to  play  some  part  in  their  creation, 
we  do  not  know;  but  the  fact  that  we  will  no  longer  have  to 
miport  roof  tile  from  England  is  encouraging.  As  in  other  mat- 
ters of  this  sort  it  is  necessary  only  to  create  a  sufficiently  urgent 
demand  and  make  it  sufficiently  felt,  to  have  it  supplied.  Tliis 
means  that  the  desire  of  a  few,  no  matter  how  intense,  will  not 
avail,  but  that  there  must  be  a  widespread  and  insistent  call  all 
along  the  line. 

If  for  reasons  of  immediate,  if  shortsighted,  economy  we  feel 
we  must  fall  back  upon  the  stock  wooden  shingle,  its  lifelessness 
and  excessive  neatness  may  be  somewhat  mitigated  by  laying  the 
shingles  so  that  the  butts  do  not  follow  an  exact  line  but  fall  hit 
or  miss,  a  half-inch  more  or  less  above  and  below.  This  does  not 
mean  that  first  one  shingle  is  to  be  laid  half  an  inch  above  the 
line  and  the  next  half  an  inch  below,  and  so  on  ad  nauseam,  but 
that  there  should  be  no  method.  Let  the  carpenter  rule  his  line 
for  the  butts  and  then  slap  the  shingle  on  the  roof  and  drive  in 
his  nails  as  he  would  if  he  were  in  a  tremendous  hurry.  To  con- 
vey this  point  of  view  to  the  workman  and  get  this  done  as  we 
wish  will  be  an  extremely  difficult  and  tiresome  task.  It  will  re- 
quire no  end  of  explaining  and  reasoning  with  the  carpenter 
before  he  can  be  got  to  humor  us  to  the  extent  of  doing  this 
properly,  as  his  ideas  of  a  good  job  will  be  thoroughly  outraged. 
It  really  would  save  time  and  attain  the  same  result  to  make 
him  slightly  drunk  and  set  him  to  work.    Another  way  is  to  have 


86  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

the  stone  mason  do  the  shingling.  Another  method  of  getting 
some  variety  into  our  roofs  with  common  shingles  is  to  lay  them, 
butts  to  a  line,  but  varying  without  any  system,  the  widths  of 
the  courses. 

Still  better,  and  hardly  more  expensive  than  the  ordinary 
shingles,  is  the  hand-spht  cypress  shingle  of  the  South.  It  is  very 
tliick  and  large,  being  about  two  feet  six  mches  long  and  of  gen- 
erous and  varying  widths.  The  extra  size,  with  the  resulting 
increase  of  area  exposed  to  the  weather,  means  fewer  shingles  to 
cover  any  given  surface,  and  it  is  this  greater  covering  capacity 
that  helps  to  bring  down  the  cost.  The  gain  is  that  of  the  pleas- 
ant texture  wliich  is  obtained  from  the  sjjlit  or  hand-shaved  sur- 
face, the  hea\y  butts,  and  the  sense  of  scale  that  is  imparted  by 
the  greater  size  of  the  shingles  and  their  spacing.  While  they 
are  effective  on  the  roof,  they  are  even  more  so  on  the  walls  of  a 
house.  As  yet  they  are  httle  used  in  the  North  and  West,  but 
are  destined  to  become  more  popular  as  the  present  shingles 
of  commerce  become  of  poorer  and  poorer  quahty  as  the  years 
go  by. 

The  use  of  slate  is  destined  to  become  daily  more  popular. 
The  wooden  shingle  is  not  only  becoming  more  expensive  with 

the  increasing  scarcity  of  lumber,  but  its  quality  is 
Slate  steadily  deteriorating.    The  danger  of  fire  from  a 

wooden  roof  covering  also  strengthens  the  demand 
for  something  more  substantial.  Slate  shares  with  tile  this  im- 
munity from  fire,  and  has  the  advantage  over  it  of  being  less 
expensive.  The  cost  per  square  (one  hundred  square  feet)  of 
shingle,  slate  and  flat  tile,  on  the  roof,  is  about  $10,  $15  and 
$30,  allowing  some  variation  for  qualitj'  and  locahty.  Red  slate 
is  also  more  expensive  than  the  other  colors. 

Slate,  hke  tile,  should  be  laid  on  the  roof  boarding  over  some 
waterproof  paper  or  felting,  asphalt  or  the  like.  INIany  of  the 
patented  preparations  are  good.  The  slate  are  then  nailed  with 
copper  nails  through  the  waterproofing  into  the  roof  boards  and 
set  in  slaters'  cement  around  angles  or  curves. 


S    in 
^  'C 


5i 

•  q 


EXTERIOR   DETAILS  87 

The  nails  should  never  be  of  iron  or  steel  even  when  galvan- 
ized, and  must  not  rust  out,  as  the  fastening  should  be  as  inde- 
structible as  the  slate. 

The  old  tliin  blue  slates  of  the  middle  of  the  last  century  have 
given  place  to  a  thicker,  rougher  slate  which  is  to  be  had  in  varie- 
gated and  pleasant  colors  and  is  superior  in  every  way.  Shades 
of  red,  green,  purple,  blue  and  gray  are  on  the  market,  and  we 
may  make  our  roofs  of  one  solid  color  or  mix  two  adjacent  tints 
to  give  a  pleasant  life  and  variety  to  the  surface.  It  is  well  to 
make  sure  that  our  slate  is  unfading  in  color,  as  this  is  not  always 
the  case. 

The  greatest  gain  of  the  slate  of  to-day  over  the  old  ones  is 
in  their  increased  size,  thickness  and  surface  texture.  This  has 
done  away  with  the  thin,  hard-looking  roofs  of  our  earher  time. 
A  favorite  method  of  lajnng  is  to  graduate  the  sizes  of  the  slate 
from  eaves  to  ridge,  that  is,  to  lay  the  largest,  tliickest  slate  in 
wide  courses  at  the  eaves  and  allow  them  to  decrease  in  size  as  they 
approach  the  ridge.  If  we  seek  the  effect  of  variety  and  rugged- 
ness,  it  is  important  to  use  large  slate  but  is  even  more  important 
that  they  be  thick.  An  inch  at  the  butt  is  not  too  much  on  cottage 
work,  and  the  effect  is  worth  what  it  costs.  Facing  tliis  page  is  a 
roof  of  this  sort. 

The  ridge  may  be  finished  with  a  copper  or  lead  roll,  which 
had  best  be  left  unbroken  and  without  ornament. 

There  is  no  more  satisfactory  roof  for  any  house  than  one  done 
in  this  way,  combining,  as  it  does,  all  the  virtues  of  beauty,  fitness 
and  utility. 

Stamped  tin  imitations  need  hardly  be  taken  seriously  as  they 
are  neither  handsome,  honest,  economical  nor  efficient. 

The  asbestos  shingle  has  done  well  but  has  hardly  been  on  the 
market  long  enough  to  have  been  thoroughly  tried  out.  It  suffers 
from  its  even  hfelessness  of  color,  and  looks  like  a  ])ainted  sur- 
face.   It  is  fireproof  and  its  makers  claim  long  life  for  it. 

We  have  already  touciied  on  the  value  in  the  design  of  the 
outside  chimney  stack,  and  of  what  a  typical  feature  such  a  chim- 


88  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

ney  was  in  the  old  half-timber  houses.  The  variety  of  shape 
and  design  of  these  cliimneys  is  almost  infinite,  from  the  very 
elaborate  and  complex  stacks  as  shown  facing  page 
Chimneys  89,  in  which  the  brick  are  especially  molded  or 
ground  to  fit  their  places  in  the  design,  to  those 
in  houses  like  that  facing  page  72,  where  the  bricks  are  alike  and 
all  of  the  common  variety.  The  intricacy  of  the  design  is  made 
entirely  by  placing  the  brick  in  different  relative  positions,  some- 
times chipping  off  a  hidden  part  to  keep  the  bond  about  the 
flues  and  insure  stability. 

Such  elaborate  stacks  as  those  shown  facing  page  89  are  ren- 
dered more  difficult  to-day  by  the  use  of  terra  cotta  flue  linings, 
which  make  any  curving  or  twisting  of  the  flue  almost  impossible 
without  somewhere  constricting  the  sectional  area  and  thus  hurt- 
ing the  draft.    It  may  best  be  done  by  using  a  circular  flue  lining. 

We  have  a  tendency  in  this  coimtry  to  be  a  little  timid  \vith 
our  outside  stacks;  they  too  often  look  as  if  the  builders  were 
ashamed  of  them  instead  of  being  proud  of  them,  glorifying  and 
honoring  them.  They  are  capable  of  being  the  most  effective 
motive  in  the  design  if  they  are  made  ample  in  size  and  plenty 
of  thought  is  given  to  their  design.  There  are  not  many  parts  of 
a  house  that  are  so  tractable  and  so  flexible  as  an  outside  chim- 
ney ;  we  may  do  with  it  almost  what  we  will,  expand  or  contract, 
raise  or  lower,  shape  it  to  suit  any  caprice  and  enrich  it  as  much 
or  as  little  as  we  please.  It  can  easily  be  made  to  give  scale  to 
the  whole.  The  idea  that  an  outside  chimney  is  apt  to  have  a  poor 
draft  need  not  trouble  us,  for  with  modern  flue  linings  and 
eight  inches  of  brick  or  more  around  them  we  can  avoid  any 
danger  of  such  trouble. 

These  chimneys  are  most  successful  when  a  common  water- 
struck  brick  is  used  and  the  entire  "  run  of  the  kiln  "  is  utilized. 
That  is,  the  bricks  must  not  be  culled  but  all  the  bricks  used  as 
they  come  from  the  baking;  light,  dark,  and  even  twisted.  The 
more  variety  of  color  and  surface  the  better,  not  forgetting  the 
black  headers  which  have  been  nearest  the  fire.    Lay  these  up  as 


'I'lii-  I  liiiiiiiry  limy  l>r  one  of  the  chirf  clciiidits  in  tlu-  dcsiftn  of  Iho  oxtcniir. 
••  The-  tJables,"  riii.'lwuli,  Kiif^land 


EXTERIOR   DETAILS  89 

they  come  to  hand,  again  avoiding  the  conscious  selection  of  every 
header  a  black  one,  or  any  other  rule.  It  is  interesting  to  see 
what  splendid  lively  brickwork  is  done  when  the  masons  think  it 
will  not  sho\r,  behind  furring  and  the  like.  If  the  surface  is  a  large 
one,  without  breaks  or  angles,  the  need  of  a  little  variety  in  the 
surface  will  be  felt.  In  this  case  we  may  make  a  criss-cross  pat- 
tern, either  using  black  headers  or  by  projecting  them  slightly 
from  the  face  of  the  wall,  so  that  the  slight  shadow  will  make 
a  simple  pattern.  Again,  we  may  lay  courses  of  brick  on  end  or 
on  edge,  or  project  a  row  of  the  corners  of  brick  laid  at  forty- 
five  degrees  with  the  surface,  or  sink  panels,  or  make  designs, 
or  project  belt  courses.  There  is  considerable  choice  between 
narrow  hmits. 

Then  if  we  choose  we  may  invest  the  surface  with  the  desired 
interest  by  changing  the  color  of  the  brick  joints  or  by  raking 
out  certain  of  them.  In  fact  it  will  not  be  hard  in  innumerable 
ways  to  add  just  as  little  or  as  much  interest  to  our  brick  wall 
as  we  choose. 

One  of  the  things  to  avoid  and  that  will  render  useless  all  the 
trouble  we  have  taken,  is  the  use  of  a  pressed  or  fancy  brick  of 
any  descrii)tion.  Another  is  the  use  of  a  red  mortar  that  matches 
the  bricks.  Again,  it  is  a  temptation  to  say  that  only  red  bricks 
will  do,  because  it  is  so  nearly  a  complete  fact.  Lately,  however, 
bricks  of  a  purple  tinge,  with  excellent  surfaces,  have  come  on 
the  market  and  one  can  imagine  they  would  look  very  well  under 
certain  conditions;  but  as  for  gray,  yellow,  white  or  mottled 
brick  —  they  will  never  do.  Nothing  is  so  safe  and  satisfactory 
as  red,  the  individual  bricks  of  which  may  vary  from  salmon  pink 
to  dark  plum.  Lay  these  with  an  honest  white  mortar,  half-inch- 
wide  flush  joint,  and  the  effect  will  be  of  a  soft  pink  wall  of  great 
life  and  interest. 

If  chimney-pots  are  used,  they  should  be  of  the  plainest  pos- 
sible design  and  without  any  patent  arrangement  at  the  top  sup- 
posed to  help  the  draft.  If  our  flue  is  as  big  as  it  ought  to  be 
its  draft  will  not  need  any  such  assistance. 


90  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

The  chimney-pots  themselves  must  have  a  sectional  area  as 
large  as  that  of  the  flues  they  cover,  and  the  contraction  at  the 
top  should  be  very  slight.  It  may  be  that  such  contraction  at 
the  top  of  a  flue  helps  the  draft,  as  is  said,  but  only  a  very  little 
should  be  permitted.  The  struggle  we  are  sure  to  have  had  to 
get  our  flue  big  enough  will  have  gone  for  naught,  if  it  is  to  be 
choked  at  the  top, 

Chinmey-pots  are  only  of  assistance  for  the  draft  when  the 
chimney  is  loAver  than  some  neighboring  roof  ridge  or  other  pro- 
jection. The  wind  blowing  over  such  an  obstruction  sometimes 
forces  an  eddy  of  air  down  the  flue.  If  we  raise  the  outlet  high 
enough  we  avoid  the  trouble.  It  is  in  thus  prolonging  the  flue 
that  the  chimney-pot  has  its  real  use. 

The  windows  in  the  old  work  were  fiUed  with  casement  sash. 
From  a  comparatively  early  time  this  sash  was  of  metal,  and  has 
so  continued  —  the  section  of  the  bar  being  im- 
Windows  proved  upon  of  late  years  as  well  as  a  more  com- 
plicated frame  to  receive  it,  with  the  ever-present 
idea  of  excluding  wind  and  rain.  These  sash  opened  out  m  nearly 
every  case  and  were  fastened  with  an  ornamented  lever  working 
on  the  cam  principle. 

The  detachable  butt  was  an  invention  inspired  by  necessity  or, 
at  least,  convenience.  For  in  the  reign  of  the  first  Tudors  glazed 
window  sash  were  a  luxurj',  and  your  nobleman,  when  he  traveled 
from  one  of  liis  country  seats  to  another,  not  only  carried  his  bed 
and  other  furniture,  but,  with  his  tapestries  to  keep  out  the 
drafts,  he  unhinged  his  ^vindows  and  brought  those  along  I  In 
the  early  times  horn  was  used  in  the  windows  in  lieu  of  glass.  In 
manuscripts  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  we  find  such  items  as  "  a 
thousand  lantern  horns  for  the  windows  of  timber  houses,"  and 
"  gilding  the  lead  on  lattice  work  of  the  horn  windows."  These 
casements  were  divided  by  lead  muntins  (bars  dividing  the  panes 
in  a  sash)  in  the  earliest  work,  when  they  were  of  diamond  pat- 
tern, but  later  the  divisions  became  rectangles,  usually  higher 
than  they  are  broad.    This  is  a  more  quiet  shape  and  less  tiresome 


Caspiiiciit  wiiuloMN  iin<l  Muall  paiirs  liolli  licliiiit;  iiisfp.inilily  tn  the 
halt'-tiiiiluT  llOMSC 


Hi 

c 


Ji 
to 

3 
O 


EXTERIOR   DETAILS  91 

to  the  eyes  which  must  look  through  them ;  for  as  these  muntins 
and  the  shapes  they  assume  are  very  plainly  stamped  on  the  eyes 
of  the  outlooker,  the  hlack  lines  against  the  light,  this  is  a  matter 
of  importance  and  will  be  felt  by  the  least  sensitive  in  such  mat- 
ters. The  lead  divisions  later  became  extraordinarily  complex, 
and  great  ingenuity  was  displayed  in  their  design. 

Owing  to  the  difficultj'^  and  in  fact  impossibility  which  was 
experienced  in  making  sheets  of  glass  of  any  size,  these  panes 
were  small,  and  necessity  in  this  case  ])roved  a  friend,  for,  estheti- 
cally  at  least,  the  clever  maker  of  great  sheets  of  perfect  glass 
has  been  of  no  assistance  to  the  artist  or  architect.  Except  in 
a  shop  window  or  a  Pullman  car,  large  sheets  of  plate  glass  are 
unsatisfactory.  They  destroy  in  the  house  all  sense  of  seclusion, 
coziness  or  warmth,  ruining  the  scale  and  making  a  summer-house 
or  observatory  out  of  one's  quiet  study.  The  letting  in  of  all  out- 
doors dwarfs  and  makes  poor  our  interiors.  One  is  never  quite 
sure  whether  he  is  indoors  or  out ;  he  is  really  astride  the  w^indow 
sill  and  has  an  imeasy  feeling  that  the  whole  world  is  looking 
in  at  him.  For  it  is  a  poor  window  that  does  not  work  both  ways. 
The  modern  idea,'  born  of  the  fresh-air  crusade  —  that  houses 
cannot  have  too  much  light,  not  sun  but  light  —  is  one  of  which 
many  amateur  house-builders  learn  the  folly  and  unwisdom  after 
their  experiment  in  these  directions  is  completed  and  it  is  too  late. 
Like  the  sculptor,  the  architect  must  strike  right  the  first  time, 
for  after  the  work  is  finished  he  will  have  learned  his  lesson,  but  the 
time  will  liave  passed  for  applying  it.  Too  much  light  in  a  house 
is  esthetically  bad;  it  makes  one's  furniture  and  belongings  look 
meagre  and  dingy  —  as  witness  our  neighbor's  goods  and  chattels 
on  the  sidewalk  on  moving  day.  One  would  not  have  believed 
how  tawdry  his  best  parlor  set  really  is,  and  as  for  the  family  por- 
traits he  has  been  so  proud  of  —  mere  ana?mic  daubs!  No. 
Colors  and  textiles  as  we  have  them  in  household  banmnjjs,  rucrs 
and  stuffs  generally,  furniture  and  woodwork  with  its  carving 
and  enrichment,  seem  dreary  and  feeble  by  too  abundant  day- 
light.   The  ballroom  is  anotiier  place  and  a  very  tawdry  one  the 


92  THE    HALF-TIMBEll    HOUSE 

next  morning  when  the  candles  are  out  and  the  sun  looks  in.  I 
have  no  doubt  this  over  lighting  of  our  rooms  could  be  shown  to 
be  equally  bad  for  the  eyes,  with  its  accompanying  reflections  and 
high-lights.  A  room  is  not  comparable  with  its  cross  lights  to 
outdoors,  and  the  same  amount  of  light  is  much  more  distressing 
to  the  eye. 

In  i)lacing  our  windows  we  shall  obtain  more  of  an  effect  of 
privacy  and  warmth  if  we  keep  the  stool  or  sill  two  feet  or  more 
above  the  floor.  If  it  is  over  three  feet  we  shall  have  difficulty  in 
seeing  out  when  we  are  seated,  which  is  a  source  of  annoyance.  In 
the  bedrooms  tliis  height  may  be  raised  without  its  being  unpleasant 
and  is  accompanied  by  an  increased  sense  of  privacy.  Of  course 
the  higher  a  window  is  in  the  wall  the  more  light  it  contributes  to 
the  room.  There  is  also  a  gain  in  ventilation  with  windows  that 
can  be  opened  near  the  ceiling. 

On  the  exterior  the  levels  of  the  heads  of  the  windows  should 
not  change  if  possible  for  each  story,  unless  it  is  to  mark  a  stair- 
case within  or  some  reason  of  that  sort;  otherwise  it  will  give 
the  building  a  chaotic,  restless,  jumpy  look  that  is  the  one  unpar- 
donable sin  in  the  houses  we  have  under  consideration. 

Our  smaller  panes,  as  seen  from  the  outside,  give  a  sense  of 
scale,  and  by  kee^jing  the  panes  of  glass  as  nearly  as  possible  the 
same  size  and  shape  all  over  the  building,  whatever  the  size  of  the 
windows  may  be,  the  eye  is  insensibly  given  something  to  use  as 
a  basis  of  comparison  by  which  to  judge  of  relative  sizes  of  other 
parts  of  the  work. 

A  common  criticism,  that  seems  to  obtain  in  the  lay  mind 
against  casement  sash,  is  that  they  are  not  tight  against  the 
weather.  There  is  no  doubt  some  truth  in  this  criticism  against 
such  sash,  when  they  are  made  to  swing  in ;  but  when  they  swing 
out  —  as  they  always  should  do  —  it  is  not  at  all  a  difficult  matter 
to  make  them  as  tight  as  a  double-hung  window  —  that  is,  one 
that  is  divided  into  two  sash  which  slide  up  and  down  in  grooves 
and  are  balanced  by  weights.  In  England  it  is  customary,  even 
in  inexpensive  work,  to  make  the  casement  sash  of  metal  and  the 


EXTERIOR    DETAILS 


98 


frame  to  receive  them  also  of  metal,  each  cumiingly  rabl)eted  so 
that  they  come  together  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  out  wind  and 
rain  equally  on  top,  sides  and  bottom.  A  more  serious  charge  is 
that  it  is  hard  to  keep  them  ojjcn  in  a  high  wind,  at  least  with  the 
usual  adjuster. 

The  use  of  the  metal  frame  is  less  common  in  this  country, 
but  the  wooden  sash  and  frames  which  we  use  may  be  equally  effi- 


WINOOW  ClOStD. 


WINDOW  opm 


Ordinarily  the  casement  windows  had  better  open  out  unless  there 
is  some  particular  reason  for  having  them  opon  in.  The  whole  sash 
may  be  raised  on  its  hinges  to  slip  out  of  the  groove  on  the  siU 

cacious  against  the  weather.  The  gain  to  be  had  by  using  case- 
ments is  that  the  whole  opening  of  the  window  may  be  utilized 
for  ventilation,  whereas  in  the  sash  window,  only  half  can  be 
opened  at  a  time.  We  may  more  readily  use  them  in  groups,  and 
when  so  used  they  are  much  more  easily  handled  and  the  desired 
appearance  obtained  with  greater  ease  and  much  less  apparent 
straining  after  effect.  They  are  smaller  and  less  heavy  and 
clumsy  to  manage,  and  the  amount  of  wall  space  wliich  we  pro- 


94  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

pose  to  devote  to  windows  can  be  much  more  accurately  and  grace- 
fully secured  by  using  this  form  of  opening. 

Just  wliat  the  psychological  reason  is  for  the  charm  and  pic- 
turesqueness  which  seem  to  be  inseparable  from  these  casement 
windows,  with  the  light  sparkling  on  their  small  panes,  or  swung 
open  to  give  a  black  hole  into  the  room  behind,  with  its  mysterious 
lure  of  the  unknown,  we  do  not  know.  The  scientific  reason  why 
they  please  us,  does  not  interest  us  here.  The  fact  for  us  is  that 
they  do  possess  a  magic  all  their  own,  and  that  we  freely  and 
eagerly  accredit  them  with  being  harbingers  of  delights  within. 

Bay-windows  are  alwaj's  charming  and  are  capable  of  an 
almost  infinite  variety  in  shape,  size  and  method  of  treatment  and 
design.  No  two  are  alike.  They  more  often  than  not  take  the 
form  of  oriel  windows  corbeled  out  from  the  wall  in  our  half- 
timber  work,  and  their  brackets  in  the  old  daj's  gave  a  chance  for 
the  droll  fancy  of  the  carvers  to  express  itself,  and  many  quaint 
conceits  are  the  result.  These  bays  may  be  either  continued  to 
the  floor  or  may  stop  above  it  to  give  a  window-seat  —  a  delight- 
ful arrangement  —  or  they  may  be  cut  off  just  below  the  window 
so  that  only  a  wide  stool  or  flower-shelf  is  left. 

Dormer  windows  are  usually  a  practical  necessity  if  we  are  to 
make  much  use  of  our  attics.  They  have  always  been  used,  but 
it  may  be  taken  as  a  general  rule  that  most  roofs  gain  in  dignity 
and  repose  by  their  absence.  They  are  usually  treated  so  as  to 
attract  as  httle  attention  as  may  be.  Their  small  walls  are  often 
shingled  so  that  they  will  melt  into  the  surrounding  roof  even 
when  the  walls  below  are  of  some  other  material.  In  the  design 
of  the  houses  of  which  we  are  writing,  we  shall  do  ever)i;hing 
possible  to  produce  the  long  low  efi'ect  in  contra-distinction  to 
the  high  narrow  one.  We  place  the  house  as  low  in  the  ground 
as  possible,  with  only  one  step  to  the  front  door ;  accent  our  hori- 
zontal lines  by  producing  horizontal  shadows,  with  overhangs  and 
eaves,  and  deprecate  anything  as  interesting  even  as  a  dormer 
window  to  attract  the  eye  so  high. 

The  doors  in  these  old  houses  were  usually  made  of  solid  planks 


To  the  Rn|;lishMiiin  tlw  <ii)or»iiy  hns  iilways  Ihtm  ii  very  iiiiporl.iiif  iinOiilcctiiral  t'fiifurc 
of  his  home  and  hi-  sparol  no  pains  in  cnriiliin);  it  with  carvol  detail 


^^-  .jaii.' '^' J] 

^yimOB£\,  *^~'"  ^*Y    I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HI 

EXTERIOR   DETAILS  95 

without  panels  —  that  is,  sohd  wood  from  side  to  side  and  often 
studded  with  nails.  Three  feet  or  so  of  solid  wood  means 
shrinkage  and  expansion,  and  it  is  often  hard,  we 
Doors  find,  nowadays  at  least,  with  an  indifferently  sea- 

soned wood,  to  make  our  doors  in  this  way  and  have 
them  continue  tight  and  well  fitting.  There  is  a  great  tendency 
to  warp  and  twist.  In  the  old  days  they  apparently  were  not  so 
nice  in  their  requirements,  and  were  thinking  more  of  strength 
and  less  of  draughts.  The  more  pretentious  doors  were  paneled 
and  carved,  often  with  narrower  stiles  and  rails  than  our  manu- 
facturers of  stock  hardware  will  permit  us  to  use  —  so  hamjjcred 
is  the  practical  architectural  designer.  Strap  hinges  were  used 
in  the  simple  work,  and  of  course  in  the  more  elaborate  work  the 
doors  were  hung  with  hinges  which  were  very  beautiful  examples 
of  the  blacksmith's  craft. 

The  Englishman  has  always  felt  the  sjinbolism  of  the  door  to 
his  home.  He  placed  over  it  his  coat  of  arms  with  mantlings.  It 
was  thus  he  announced  himself,  and  beneath  it  in  his  porch  he 
loved  to  give  warm  welcome  to  his  friends  and  to  press  the  stirrup 
cup  on  the  parting  guest.  The  doorway  was  the  setting  of  many 
happy  comings  and  sad  partings.  It  held  a  very  important  place 
in  the  family  shrine  of  home,  and  nothing  could  be  more  natural 
than  that  pains  should  not  be  spared  for  its  adornment.  It  was 
usually  covered  by  a  porch  to  protect  from  the  weather  those  who 
sought  admittance. 

The  functions  of  a  front  door  and  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
house  have  changed  not  at  all  with  the  passing  centuries,  and  it 
is  as  worthy  to  command  our  best  to-day  as  it  ever  was.  The 
porch  lends  itself  with  much  grace  and  distinction  to  architectural 
treatment,  and  we  give  a  niunber  of  examples  of  timbered  porches, 
some  old,  some  new.  The  old  lych  gates  to  the  churchyard  en- 
trances are  among  the  best  examples  of  these  timbered  hoods  and 
shelters. 

AVhether  or  not  a  terrace  belongs  with  "  exterior  details,"  may 
be  open  to  question  —  at  least  as  to  its  being  a  detail.    It  certainly 


96  THE    HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

is  not  if  Webster  is  right  in  defining  "  detail  "  as  "  a  minute 

portion."    But  if  we  have  tliis  definition  at  hand  we  may  put 

it  to  some  use  by  letting  it  stand  for  exactly  what 

Terrace  a  terrace  should  not  be.     It  is  usually  made  too 

small  and  can  never  be  made  too  large. 

We  have  already,  in  speaking  of  dining-rooms,  had  something 
to  say  about  the  pleasures  of  dining  out-of-doors  and  of  the  value 
of  some  sort  of  covering,  screening  or  glazing  in  many  localities. 
If  the  terrace  has  a  duty  to  the  dining-room,  it  must  not  neglect 
the  living-rooms  or  hall,  and  should  form  an  addition  to  one  or 
all  of  these  rooms.  Nor  will  it  have  fulfilled  its  true  function  or 
exhausted  its  full  possibihties  for  usefulness  unless  it  can  combine 
the  greatest  possible  amount  of  privacy  with  the  best  that  the 
house  affords  in  the  way  of  view.  It  will  in  any  case  sen-e  as  the 
vestibule  of  the  garden,  which  in  turn  will  act  as  an  intermediary 
between  the  house  and  the  country  bej'ond.  The  garden  should 
take  each  by  the  hand  and  bring  them  together.  It  is  a  great 
temptation,  now  we  are  almost  in  the  garden,  to  say  something 
about  this  great  outdoor  hving-room,  with  its  decorations  of  nod- 
ding hollyhock,  foxglove,  bursting  snapdragon,  dancing  primrose 
and  the  thousand  and  one  other  blossoms,  not  forgetting  the  great 
rose  family  with  their  stately  flowers  and  aristocratic  names  — 
these  names  which  are  so  transformed  by  the  Saxon  tongues  of 
the  EngUsh  cottagers.  Thus  the  gallant  crimson  Giant  de 
Batailles  becomes  "  Gent  of  Battles."  Gloire  de  Dijon  changes 
to  "  Glory  to  thee,  John,"  and  a  rose  named  from  the  great  rosa- 
rian.  Dean  Re}Tiolds  Hole,  is  called  "  Reynard's  Hole,"  while 
the  beautiful  General  Jacqueminot  becomes  "  General  Jack-me- 
not."  However,  an  Englislmian  has  told  us  that  a  rose  by  any 
other  name  would  smell  as  sweet,  so  we  will  not  quarrel  about  the 
labels. 

Further  than  to  say  that  the  garden  should  be  thought  of  as 
an  outdoor  room,  that  it  should  have  as  intimate  a  connection  with 
the  house  as  is  possible,  and  that  the  house  should  turn  its  friend- 
liest face  in  its  direction,  we  must  not  go.    Volumes  and  volumes 


EXTERIOR    DETAILS  97 

are  written,  and  very  properly,  about  gardens  alone,  and  when 
we  remember  that  of  late  years  they  have  even  acquired  a  self- 
anointed  high-priest  called  a  Landscape  Architect  who  has  consti- 
tuted himself  keeper  of  the  sacro  sand  mysteries  of  garden  craft, 
let  the  author  then,  a  mere  architect,  flee  for  his  life  up  the  path 
and  safe  onto  the  terrace  before  he  stops  for  breath! 

The  terrace  floor  may  be  of  brick,  laid  in  cement  mortar  over 
a  bed  of  broken  rock  and  sand.  The  brick  may  be  laid  in  herring- 
bone or  basket  pattern,  or  varied  to  suit  the  particular  case,  and 
when  so  used  are  best  laid  flat,  as  the  resulting  floor  is  smoother. 
Again,  for  cheaper  and  less  formal  work,  the  brick  may  be  laid 
on  a  bed  of  sand  and  the  joints  between  merely  flushed  full  of 
sand  or  loam  from  which  in  time  will  spring  up  moss  and  small 
vegetation.  This  floor  will  have  to  be  held  in  place  by  a  border  of 
cut  stone,  brick  laid  in  cement  or  something  having  sufficient  rigid- 
ity to  hold  in  the  loose  brick.  Such  a  floor,  while  it  will  in  time 
settle  in  places  and  be  less  true  than  the  other,  can  be  more  easily 
mended,  it  being  a  simple  matter  to  lift  a  few  bricks  when  they 
have  settled  and  insert  the  necessary  amount  of  filling  to  bring 
them  to  a  level  with  the  rest.  Hea\'y  frost  will  not  be  as  apt  to 
make  trouble  with  a  flexible  floor  of  this  sort  as  with  the  more 
rigid  one  of  cemented  joints. 

Tile  also  make  an  admirable  terrace  floor,  being  smoother  than 
brick,  and  may  be  had  of  a  splendid  red  color.  One  must  be  sure 
his  tile  are  baked  sufficiently  hard  to  withstand  frost  and  hard 
knocks,  and  should  be  from  six  to  twelve  inches  square  and  of  an 
inch  or  more  in  thickness.  Tiles  imported  from  ^Vales  ha\e  long- 
been  favorites,  but  lately  a  very  satisfactory  domestic  tile  has  ap- 
peared, tougher  in  fact  than  the  foreign  one,  but  of  not  quite  so 
good  a  color  or  texture.  Tile  keep  their  original  color  better  than 
brick  in  actual  practice,  the  latter  holding  more  of  the  grime  and 
dirt. 

Another  excellent  surface  for  our  terrace  is  flagstone.  Any 
evenly  stratified  stone  split  off  in  random  sizes  and  shapes  will 
do.     Rluestone  or  any  firm  shale  is  commonly  used.     This  may 


98  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

be  laid  either  in  mortar  on  a  prei^ared  foundation,  like  brick; 
or  better,  laid  all  shapes  and  sizes,  dovetailed  together  as  nearly 
as  possible,  the  joints  being  allowed  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
which  means  that  grass  and  vegetation  will  quickly  fill  in  the  in- 
terstices, producing  a  very  jDleasmg  and  practical  flooring  for 
outdoors.  Black  and  white  squares  of  marble,  while  handsome 
enough  in  Itahan  or  very  formal  work,  are  a  little  too  grand  to 
be  in  the  same  key  with  the  rest  of  the  house.  Terraces  of  wood 
are  desirable  only  when  one  camiot  afford  anytliing  else.  They 
are,  when  laid  tight  and  uncovered,  subject  to  rapid  decay.  Laid 
with  open  joints,  their  life  will  be  prolonged,  but  they  will  be 
drafty  and  unsightly. 

We  are  surely  at  the  very  edge  of  our  province  when  we  come 
to  the  terrace  posts  and  rails,  but  we  will  keep  one  foot  at  least 
on  the  terrace  and  so  save  our  consciences  from  the  sin  of  poach- 
ing. Such  posts  may  be  built  up  either  of  brick  with  stone  or 
cast  cement  cap,  or  made  of  cut  stone  or  of  cast  cement  —  never 
of  cobbles  or  field  stone.  With  our  type  of  house  such  a  thing 
would  be  a  triumph  of  vulgarit}'.  Our  rail,  if  it  is  not  a  wall  of 
some  kind,  may  be  of  stone  with  balusters  of  either  brick  or  of 
turned  stone,  taking  care  that  it  is  of  the  proper  height  and  width 
to  sit  upon.  If  economy  is  necessary  wood  rails  and  turned  bal- 
usters will  answer  very  well.  Chestnut  or  locust  will  stand  the 
longest.  We  may  have  no  rail  of  any  sort  if  there  is  little  or  no 
change  of  level  between  the  ground  and  the  floor  of  our  terrace. 

Rain-water  heads  and  down  pipes  or  conductors  are  just  as 
necessary  to-day  as  they  ever  were,  but  for  some  reason  or  other 
they  have  ceased  to  play  the  part  they  formerly  did. 
Rain-water  While  they  were  formerly  given  a  place  of  honor 
Heads  and  were  a  source  of  pride,  they  now  seem  to  be 

admitted  grudgingly  and  apologetically.  Where 
formerly  they  were  big,  splendid,  important  parts  of  the  design, 
enriched  and  made  much  of,  they  are  now  merely  timid,  emascu- 
lated pipes,  tucked  away  out  of  sight  as  nearly  as  may  be.  This 
is  a  great  mistake. 


Ill  the  half  tiinlxr  house  iif  tu-day  we  shiill  make  iiiik  It  more  >>t'  our  termer,  f;iviii)( 

it  the  host  combiiiatioii  of  privacy  and  view,  with  a  (Mviii); 

of  tile,  Hafj.stoiie  or  liriik 


Another  typical  feature  of  the  half-liiiilHT  lioiise  that  we  have  too  loiifr  nefileeted 
is  the  rain-water  head  of  lead  or  its  modern  copper  substitute 


EXTERIOR   DETAILS  99 

Their  vertical  lines,  which  may  usually  allow  of  considerable 
latitude  in  their  placing,  are  of  the  greatest  help  to  the  designer, 
and  the  big  heads  give  a  splendid  chance  in  the  small  house  to 
obtain  a  sense  of  scale  of  wliich  the  architect  should  not  be  slow 
to  take  advantage. 

Wliile  the  lead  heads,  which  to-day  are  as  common  in  England 
as  they  formerly  were,  are  hard  to  obtain  in  tliis  country,  we  may 
make  very  satisfactory  heads  and  pipes  of  copper,  although  it  can 
never  be  as  tractable  for  this  purpose  as  the  more  ductile  lead. 
Galvanized  iron,  which  was  a  few  years  ago  much  used  for  this 
purpose,  is  to-day  of  such  a  poor  quality  that  it  will  not  last  over 
six  to  eight  years  when  used  for  this  purpose.  Zinc  is  not  feasible 
largely  for  the  same  reason. 


Interior  Details 


WHILE  the  exterior  arrangement  and  design  are  little  sub- 
ject to  rule,  the  interior  effect  is  even  less  so.  The  diffi- 
culty of  successful  interior  treatment  lies  in  the  minds  of 
many  householders,  more  in  ignorance  of  what  they  should  try  to 
do  than  in  any  lack  of  interest  in  the  result.  The  enthusiasm  is  not 
lacking,  but  it  is  too  often  without  proper  guidance. 

The  longing  for  a  pretty  and  attractive  home  is  strong  in 
every  housewife.  She  has  a  very  clear  mental  picture,  in  a  large 
sketchy  way,  of  the  artistic  milieu  she  wishes  to  produce,  but  a 
very  hazy  idea  of  how  it  is  to  be  brought  about. 

There  is,  in  the  masculine  mind,  however,  a  deep-seated  suspi- 
cion that  an  artistic  home  means  an  uncomfortable  one.  The  very 
word  "  artistic  "  brings  to  his  mind  a  picture  of  a  room  crowded 
with  pictures  and  gimcracks,  with  chairs  too  good  for  one's  feet, 
and  not  strong  enough  to  sit  upon;  or  else  he  is  chilled  by  the 
vision  of  that  other  tyjie  of  the  artistic  room  in  which  everything 
has  been  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  and  only  that  is  permitted 
wliich  is  not  only  decorative  in  itself  but  that  fills  a  definite  role 
in  the  carefully  studied  picture.  Not  a  jonquil  must  be  touched, 
not  a  chair  moved.  Nothing  is  admitted  except  on  business.  A 
pipe  left  on  the  mantel  would  throw  the  whole  room  off  its  bal- 
ance. These  rooms  are  refined,  delightful,  and  thoroughly  en- 
joyable—  m  other  jjeople's  houses. 

I'erhaps  the  best  rule  for  obtaining  the  happy  medium  that 
will  bring  the  words  "  artistic  "  and  "  home  "  together  is  the  well 
known  one  of  William  Morris:  "  Have  nothing  in  your  house  that 
you  do  not  know  to  be  useful  or  believe  to  be  beautiful,"  —  and, 
we  might  add,  not  too  much  of  that !  It  may  be  taken  as  another 
rule  that  practical  requirements  either  in  the  furniture  or  its 
arrangement  must  never  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  appearance. 


INTERIOR   DETAILS  101 

"  Art  for  art's  sake,"  may  do  Avell  enough  in  the  studio  but  should 
not  be  tolerated  as  a  rule  for  the  home. 

Good  taste  should  be  something  more  than  a  connoisseur's 
knowledge  of  works  of  art;  it  should  include  as  well  a  just  appre- 
ciation of  the  relation  of  these  works  of  art  to  their  surroundings 
and  to  each  other.  The  room  of  careful  selection,  arrangement 
and  restraint  of  which  we  have  spoken,  is  an  ideal  one  when  it 
possesses  the  added  feeling  of  comfort  and  usefulness.  But  the 
artistic  should  be  so  interwoven  with  the  practical  that  the  result 
will  reflect  the  natural  refinement  wliich  is  the  possession  of  the 
owner. 

It  is  in  this  that  the  trained  designer  may  be  of  use  to  the 
owner  of  general  culture  who  desires  to  surround  himself  with 
an  atmosphere  of  refinement  but  who  has  not  had  the  special 
training  necessary  to  j^roduce  it.  There  are  a  great  many  sensi- 
tive people  of  culture  who  become  heartily  sick  of  cheap  meretri- 
cious decoration,  but  who,  lacking  the  opportunity  or  nice  dis- 
crimination to  obtain  for  themselves  simple  refinement,  give  up 
the  fight,  throw  over  artistic  effort  of  every  sort,  and  allow  them- 
selves to  revert  to  decorative  savagery.  Perhaps  we  would  better 
say  that  they  still  keep  their  eclecticism,  but  that  their  desire  for 
honest  simplicity  fixes  their  choice  on  a  crude  sort  of  furniture 
that  was  the  style  in  the  Stone  Age. 

We  may  imagine  the  perfectly  harmonious  living-room  of  the 
Cave  Dweller,  with  its  cavernous  rough  stone  fireplace,  where 
he  might  roast  an  ichthyosaurus  whole,  his  chairs  of  great  hewn 
logs,  and  liis  table  ware  of  chipped  flint.  He  himself,  a  dirty  Her- 
cules in  a  lion's  skin,  fondles  a  club.  There  is  no  jarring  note  in 
this  picture.  It  is  a  perfectly  consistent  expression.  Everj-thing 
is  in  scale.  But  what  would  be  our  impression  if  the  o^^Tier  were 
a  dyspeptic  commuter  with  a  pink  tie  and  creased  trousers? 
Great,  clumsy  furniture  made  of  scantlings  and  upholstered  with 
cow-hide  is  a  style  of  work  which  seeks  to  curry  favor  by  adver- 
tising itself  as  simple,  when  i)rimitive  would  be  a  better  word.  It 
seeks  to  be  nothing,  and  so  escapes  being  bad.     This  negative 


102  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

virtue  certainly  makes  it  more  desirable  than  a  great  deal  that 
may  be  had  for  the  same  price.  If  our  purse  be  slim  perhaps 
we  cannot  do  better,  but  it  is  nothing  of  which  we  may  be 
proud.  We  may  think  of  a  chair  of  this  sort  that  it  is  the  best 
we  can  get  for  five  dollars,  but  not  the  best  chair  we  can  get. 
No  piece  of  furniture  that  can  be  made  by  an  indifferent  work- 
man with  a  hatchet  in  half  a  day,  can  have  much  claim  to  be 
taken  seriously. 

It  is  no  use.  Time  will  not  turn  back  in  his  flight,  and  while 
we  are  bound  to  sympathize  with  those  who  are  in  revolt  against 
the  tawdriness  which  is  so  common,  the  remedy  does  not  lie  in 
flying  to  the  other  extreme.  It  is  rather  in  insisting  on  having 
our  things  well  designed  and  well  built,  whether  they  be  simple  or 
elaborate.  Nor  is  this  impossible.  Such  things  are  to  be  had,  and 
the  ability  exists  to  make  them  more  common  and  only  waits  for 
the  demand  to  call  it  forth.  The  difference  between  good  and  bad 
here  is  not  to  be  measured  in  dollars,  but  solely  in  the  skill  of  the 
designer. 

In  adopting  a  type  of  work  we  must  imbue  ourselves  thor- 
oughly with  the  scale  and  spirit  of  that  style.  We  may  choose  the 
robust  or  the  delicate;  we  may  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  English 
Tudor  or  of  the  Colonial.  The  adjectives  used  to  describe  these 
two  opposite  types  of  work  will  vary  with  the  sympathies  of  him 
who  speaks.  Where  one  will  say  the  English  work  is  clumsy  and 
brutal,  and  the  Georgian  chaste  and  delicate,  another,  cast  in  a 
temperamentally  different  mold,  will  call  English  work  virile 
and  honest,  and  the  other  timid  and  anaemic.  We  know  what 
each  means,  and  that  these  descriptions  will  fit  either  style  at  its 
best  and  worst. 

It  does  not  make  so  much  difference  in  which  manner  we 
elect  to  build.  The  important  thing  is  not  to  mix  them. 
^V^len  the  dainty  and  the  bold  are  joined  we  have  an  epicene 
effect  impotent  and  vulgar.  The  result  is  an  architectural 
eunuch. 

Panehng,  together  with  tapestry  and  painting,  is  the  oldest 


f\ 


INTERIOR    DETAILS  103 

method  of  covering  the  walls  of  a  room.  The  chilhness  and 
roughness  of  stone  walls  was  what  led  to  the  use  of  hangings 
of  some  sort  to  keep  out  the  drafts.  Hides  were 
Wall  probably  used  first  and  later  textiles  of  one  sort 

Treatment  or  another.  The  weaving  of  tapestry  for  the  es- 
pecial purpose  of  wall  covering  was  a  very  early 
and  widespread  industry  throughout  Europe  and  continued  to 
supply  a  popular  need  well  into  the  seventeenth  century. 

Paneling  of  one  sort  or  another  is  also  a  very  old  art,  and  the 
various  stages  in  its  development  are  of  great  interest  and  worthy 
of  study.  Beginning  with  very  wide  panels  of  a  single  piece  of 
wood,  they  were  gradually  made  narrower  as  it  became  more  diffi- 
cult to  get  the  larger  pieces.  Then  the  rails  and  stiles  underwent 
a  series  of  changes  in  their  construction,  all  in  the  direction  of 
economy  of  time  and  labor  and  the  reducing  of  the  necessary 
amount  of  skill  required,  so  that  a  larger  body  of  workmen  would 
have  access  to  the  craft.  This  is  of  course  the  direction  always 
taken  in  the  improvement  of  methods  of  work. 

It  will  not  be  worth  our  while  here  to  discuss  such  technical 
improvements  as  molding  "  run  "  in  the  solid,  or  "  planted  "  on. 
That  is  a  matter  of  architectural  archaeology.  ^Vliat  we  are  in- 
terested in  here  is  what  our  paneling  is  going  to  look  like  when  we 
have  it. 

Few  luxuries  in  a  house  will  pay  their  cost  better  than  wood 
panehng,  but  it  has  something  to  say  for  itself  even  on  the  score 
of  economy.  It  is  surprisingly  warm,  for  it  does  not  chill  the 
warmed  air  of  the  room  as  plaster  does,  and  we  are  saved  the 
trouble  and  expense  of  constantly  decorating,  for  unlike  wall 
paper,  paneling  improves  with  age.  The  higher  we  can  cover  our 
walls  with  wood,  the  better  they  will  look,  and  they  will  look  best 
of  all  when  sheathed  in  a  brown  coat  from  floor  to  ceiling. 

While  the  divisions  of  the  paneling  sliould  be  of  simple  shape, 
ordinarily  rectangular,  we  may  well  flower  out  at  the  top  into 
something  a  little  more  interesting  —  a  few  simple  moldings  and 
perhaps  a  httle  carving;   but  if  our  room  be  not  large  we  shall 


104  THE   HALF-TIMBER   HOUSE 

do  well  to  keep  the  paneling  very  quiet  and  modest,  avoiding  too 
heavy  sinkages  or  too  heavy  molding  framing  in  the  panels.  If 
we  use  a  lively  wood,  as  quartered  white  oak  or  cypress,  we  need 
not  fear  monotony  even  if  the  panels  have  the  slightest  pos- 
sible sinkage  and  no  molding  whatever.  In  fact,  as  in  so  manj' 
other  i^roblems  in  design,  we  are  steering  our  course  between 
the  Scylla  of  fussiness  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Charybdis  of 
stupidity  on  the  other.  The  medium  that  is  just  in  step  with 
the  room,  its  size,  decoration  and  furnishing  is  what  we  are 
striving  for. 

For  finish  there  is  nothing  so  good  as  oil  or  wax  on  quartered 
oak  over  a  brown  stain,  not  too  dark.  Oak  does  not  turn  dark 
from  age  but  only  from  dirt.  In  England  the  wood  is  frequently 
left  as  it  comes  from  the  plane,  but  in  this  country  we  prefer 
to  do  sometliing  by  way  of  filling  the  pores  in  order  to  keep  out 
the  dampness.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  discuss  paper  made  to 
imitate  wood  and  used  to  give  the  impression  of  paneling.  It  is 
among  those  lies  that  are  the  immoralities  of  architecture. 

If  we  are  to  have  plaster  walls  there  is  not  much  need  to  say 
anything  about  them  here,  as  every  man  who  lives  in  a  house 
is  familiar  with  them,  or  at  least  with  the  paper  that  usually  covers 
them.  It  is  not  the  author's  intention  to  harangue  against  wall 
paper.  Far  from  it.  It  is  probably  the  most  pleasant,  attractive 
and  serviceable  covering  for  walls  we  have  —  for  the  money  — 
and  the  variety  of  patterns  should  give  us  a  new  respect  for  the 
himian  mind.  If  the  paper  is  one  with  flowers  or  trees  it  is  safest 
to  have  them  treated  conventionally  and  to  avoid  the  realistic 
roses,  etc.,  which  are  pretty  enough  as  pictures  but  are  hardly 
suitable  as  a  decoration.  Papers  printed  in  two  tones  of  the 
same  color  are  always  safe  and  quiet  and  make  excellent  back- 
grounds for  pictures. 

It  would  be  going  a  little  too  far  afield  to  discuss  the  claims 
to  our  attention  of  the  various  sorts  of  patterns  and  colors.  Choos- 
ing a  paper  is  a  matter  in  which  we  must  keep  one  eye  on  the 
paper  and  the  other  on  the  room  considered  as  a  whole.    The  ques- 


INTERIOR    DETAILS  105 

tions  of  color,  of  scale,  and  appropriateness  of  pattern,  are  the 
things  to  be  considered,  and  with  all  the  taste  and  knowledge  in 
the  world  at  our  fingers'  ends,  it  will  still  remain  a  most  difficult 
thing  to  do,  and  most  of  us  will  have  a  surprise  of  some  sort  when 
we  "  see  it  on!  " 

There  is  much  to  be  said  for  leaving  plaster  walls,  and  par- 
ticularly ceilings,  rough  from  the  trowel  or  darby.  They  may 
then  be  tinted  if  thought  desirable.  The  texture  is  soft  and  pleas- 
ing, and  the  reflected  lights  from  the  walls  and  ceilings  much 
tempered.  There  is  no  better  background  for  hanging  j)ictures. 
It  may  seem  rather  ascetic  to  one  who  is  used  to  having  bunches 
of  luscious  pink  roses  nodding  at  him  from  his  wall,  but  when  he 
has  become  accustomed  to  it  he  will  never  go  back  to  the  other 
wliich  he  may  well  regard  with  a  sujjerior  eye. 

The  simplest  of  all  ceilings,  which  is  the  underside  of  the 
floor  above,  is  still  practicable  for  us  if  we  choose.  That  is, 
the  beams  and  joists  forming  the  construction  of 
Ceilings  the  floor  are  allowed  to  show  from  below,  and  the 

spaces  between  may  be  j^lastered  or  ceiled  with 
wood.  This  gives  us  for  beams  the  real  solid  timbers  which 
are  working  for  their  living,  and  their  checks  and  cracks 
and  knots  afl^ect  us  pleasantly  with  the  feeling  whicli  great 
strength  in  repose  always  gives.  In  the  simplest  work  we  may 
leave  these  untouched  or  enrich  with  carving  or  decorate  in  color 
as  much  as  the  room  warrants.  The  objection  (for  no  shield 
more  inevitably  has  two  sides  than  an  architectural  j^roblcm)  is 
that  such  a  floor  is  apt  to  transmit  tlie  noises  from  above,  unless 
this  contingencj'  is  guarded  against.  This  may  be  j)rcvcntcd  by 
laying  sheathing  quilt  between  the  under  and  upper  floors  above, 
doing  away  as  much  as  possible  with  any  connection  between  the 
two,  even  to  nailing  from  one  into  the  other.  The  u])pcr  floor 
may  be  laid  on  sleepers  and  so  floated  on  the  quilt  witlioiit  even  a 
nail  to  convey  the  vibrations  to  the  under  floor  and  its  joists.  Our 
])laster  underneath  may  be  also  furred  out  onto  the  beams  instead 
of  being  put  on  latliing  nailed  tight  against  the  underflooring, 


106  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

thus  giving  us  a  dead-air  space  between  the  two  which  will  help 
smother  the  sound  waves. 

If,  however,  this  matter  of  sound  seems  to  us  a  very  important 
one  and  we  are  perhaps  to  have  a  young  person  above  our  heads 
who  insists  on  taking  a  constitutional  before  going  to  bed,  there 
is  another  way.  This  is  to  have  our  floor  and  ceiling  constructed 
in  the  ordinary  way,  plaster  and  all,  and  then  beam  our  ceihng 
without  regard  to  what  is  behind.  These  false  beams  give  us  a 
greater  freedom  in  the  matter  of  design  as  we  may  be  quite  inde- 
pendent of  any  constructional  requirements,  as  they  are  already 
taken  care  of.  We  may  make  om*  beams  of  any  size  or  shape  that 
suits  us,  space  them  and  pattern  the  ceiling  with  them  as  we 
please.  In  this  case,  too,  we  may  build  them  up  instead  of  using 
the  solid  wood  and  so  get  rid  of  any  future  checks  or  cracks,  if 
that  is  ever  a  desideratum.  A  still  more  thorough  method  of 
sound-proofing  is  to  hang  a  false  ceiling  below  the  real  one  and 
entirely  independent  of  it. 

Now  let  us  consider  plaster  ceilings  of  a  more  elaborate  sort. 
The  plaster  ribbed  ceilings  of  the  time  of  Ehzabeth  and  James 
are  the  most  peculiarly  and  distinctively  English  tilings  of  all  the 
architectural  work  of  that  busy  time.  Although  the  art  was 
learned  from  the  Italians,  its  subsequent  development  was  along 
the  lines  of  native  thought  and  predilection.  It  clung  to  its  in- 
dividuality with  great  tenacity  and  refused  to  be  touched  by  the 
foreign  influence  that  was  having  such  a  marked  effect  all  around 
it.  The  plasterers  of  this  time  developed  a  style  of  work  that  is 
pecuhar  to  England  and  is  found  nowhere  else.  These  ceilings 
are  very  elaborate  and  of  most  intricate  pattern,  being  covered 
with  an  all-over  design  of  interlaced  and  decorated  bands  and 
ribs,  often  with  bosses  or  pendants  at  the  intersections. 

The  effect  of  these  complex  ceilings  when  well  designed  and 
covering  rooms  worthy  to  receive  them,  is  at  once  refined  and 
sumptuous.  When  badly  done  they  are  extremely  clamorous 
and  chaotic. 

The  expense  of  doing  this  work  to-day  keeps  it  from  being 


Paiieliiif;  i[i  I'lif  Mali,  M:i)r<l:il<'ii  Colleffe,  Oxford,  sliowiii};  llie  rkhncss 
obtaiii''(l  bv  tlif  use  i>t'  the  linen  fiikl  ami  lieraUlic  motives 


I'lie  (linjii^'room  of  St.   Donals.      W'lieii  plaster  came  to  l)e  used  for  ceiling 
decoration  it  t'olloued  (or   i  time  the  stone  vaulting  of  Gothii'  work 


INTERIOR   DETAILS  107 

more  generally  seen.  There  is,  however,  a  simpler  form  of  plaster 
decoration  without  its  expense  or  its  esthetic  dangers,  that  might 
be  much  more  commonly  employed  than  it  is.  That  is  the  appli- 
cation of  molded  ornament  of  a  repeat  pattern,  used  to  accent 
structural  lines  such  as  the  groins  of  vaults,  or  to  ser^-e  as  borders. 
Very  pleasant  and  individual  effects  may  be  obtained  in  this  way 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  gain  in  favor.  Facing  page  103  is  an 
example  of  this  work. 

There  are  two  schools  of  technique  in  plaster  work:  the  old 
cast  work  with  its  flat  surfaces  and  blunt  edges  left  untouched 
from  the  mold,  and  that  other  sort  of  work  which  is  cut  with  a 
chisel  as  sharply  and  crisply  as  a  cameo,  vnth  much  undercutting 
—  the  whole  full  of  life  and  snap.  Some  of  the  best  work  of  this 
sort  is  to  be  seen  at  Fontainebleau  and  in  many  another  palace 
throughout  France  and  Italy,  but  not  so  often  in  England  and 
never  until  the  time  of  Inigo  Jones.  For  our  purposes  in  our 
modest  homes  we  shall  do  better  to  use  the  molded  decoration 
left  untouched  by  the  chisel,  and  not  insist  on  the  more  nervous 
and  habile  style. 

Vaulted  ceilings  are  a  pleasant  variation  and  serve  to  bring 
a  ceiling  down  in  appearance.  The  curve  may  be  either  the  arc 
of  a  circle  or  half  an  ellipse.  If  designed  with  groins,  a  pleasant 
feeling  of  solidity  results,  and  an  agreeable  play  of  light  and 
shade. 

We  have  already  seen  how  our  first  fireplace  was  a  few  fiat 
stones  with  the  opening  in  the  roof  protected  from  the  Aveather 
for  the  exit  of  the  smoke.  While  this  method 
Fireplaces  may  have  given  more  heat  to  the  room  than  the 
modern  arrangement,  it  unquestionably  must  have 
given  more  smoke.  The  idea,  first,  of  a  great  hood  to  catch  it, 
and  second,  of  a  flue  to  guide  it  up  and  out,  followed.  The  flue 
was  naturally  built  against  the  wall  and  so  the  fire  found  itself 
there  as  well.  Remembering  that  the  logician  has  been  described 
in  derision  as  one  who  builds  bridges  across  chasms  over  wliich 
any  one  can  jump,  we  will  hasten  to  assume  that  the  reader  can 


108  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

jump  from  the  fire  to  the  mantel,  and  not  delay  to  follow  the 
slow  evolution  of  a  shelf  for  jjots  and  pans  and  oji  to  such 
elaborate  mantel  arrangements  as  that  shown  facing  j^age  111. 

It  is  a  long  time  since  England  has  been  a  country  where  it 
was  feasible  to  fill  the  great  j^awning  fireplaces  with  logs  of  wood. 
As  in  all  the  old  countries,  wood  is  too  precious  to  burn  except 
in  the  most  gingerly  fashion,  and  with  its  disappearance  the  fire- 
place has  shrunk  until  it  is  now  too  often  only  large  enough  to 
hold  a  small  coal  grate.  So  we  shall  not  care  for  the  modern 
English  method  of  fireplace  treatment,  and  would  much  better 
look  to  the  old  ones  for  inspiration. 

As  the  function  of  a  firejilace  is  bound  to  make  it  a  focus  of 
life  in  winter,  so  the  treatment  due  to  its  importance  will  make 
it  the  decorative  centre  of  the  room  the  rest  of  the  year.  What- 
ever the  details,  its  general  design  should  be  carefully  kept  on 
the  same  plane  with  the  rest  of  the  room  and  its  furnishings.  That 
is,  it  should  be  as  simple  or  as  gorgeous  as  its  surroundings,  which- 
ever the  case  may  be.  The  keynote  that  has  been  struck  must  be 
maintained  if  we  are  to  have  harmony.  This  might  seem  to  be  a 
superfluous  warning  to  intelligent  people,  and  would  be  so  if 
widespread  interest  in  the  fireplace  did  not  so  often  blind  the 
owner  to  its  less  important  surroundings.  The  owner  has  seen 
some  particular  fireplace  somewhere  wliich  he  admired  so  much 
that  he  has  never  forgotten  it,  and  has  long  been  awaiting  the 
chance  to  rejiroduce  it.  So,  with  a  single  eye  to  its  charms  and  no 
thought  of  the  rest  of  his  room,  in  it  goes.  There  seems  to  be  no 
other  explanation  why  in  a  gentle,  refined  room  we  may  turn 
around  and  find  ourselves  confronted  by  a  ruffianly-looking 
cobble-stone  fireplace,  mantel  and  all.  The  sort  of  thing  that 
would  do  very  well  in  a  bungalow  with  tables  made  of  logs  and 
armchairs  ingeniously  evolved  from  mutilated  mackerel  tubs,  is 
not  at  all  the  thing  to  go  with  our  Georgian  furniture  and  white 
paint.  Another  abomination  in  a  real  house  is  the  rough  brick 
chimney  and  mantel,  the  tentacles  of  which  seem  to  have  insinu- 
ated themselves  firmly  about  the  hearts  of  our  home-makers. 


INTERIOR   DETAILS  109 

So,  then,  let  us  have  our  fireplace  and  mantel  in  step  with  us 
and  our  other  belongings.  The  fireplace  opening  should  be  from 
two  to  five  or  six  feet  in  width,  with  whatever  height  we  choose. 
Three  feet  is  enough  width  for  an  average  room.  The  size  of 
the  flue  nuist  increase  with  the  size  of  the  opening;  the  sectional 
area  should  not  be  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  area  of  the  fireplace 
opening.  A  good  depth  for  the  opening  is  twenty  inches.  If 
it  is  deeper  we  lose  too  much  of  the  heat,  if  shallower  than  six- 
teen inches  we  may  have  smoke.  It  is  a  mistake  to  have  fire- 
places over  four  feet  wide  unless  we  are  prepared  to  burn  big 
sticks,  as  small  ones  will  look  mean. 

We  may  frame  in  the  opening  Avith  either  cut  stone,  as  in 
the  illustration  facing  page  106,  or  brick  or  tile,  or  anything 
that  is  not  inflammable.  If  our  mantel  is  of  wood  it  must  be 
kept  at  least  four  inches  awaj'  all  around.  Red  brick  makes 
an  excellent  border  in  the  living-room  for  xmpretentious  work. 
If  brick  is  used  in  the  bedrooms  it  will  often  be  better  to  use 
some  lighter  color  such  as  gray  or  yellow.  When  red  brick  is 
used  the  joints  should  always  be  either  white  or  black,  but  the 
mortar  should  never  be  colored  to  match  the  bricks  unless  for 
some  special  reason.  Tile  gives  a  little  more  finished  appearance 
than  brick,  but  great  care  should  be  exercised  in  the  selection. 
Excellent  dull-glazed  tile  in  plain  colors  are  to  be  had.  Those 
with  the  high  gloss  are  generally  to  be  avoided;  tlie  glitter  of 
their  high-lights  gives  a  thin,  hard  look,  which  is  a  restless  note  in 
the  room.  Tiles  without  any  glaze  whatever  may  be  had  in  quaint 
and  attractive  patterns,  copies  of  medieval  tile,  and  should  be 
particularly  suited  to  an  English  room.  Stone,  marble  and  ce- 
ment facings  are  also  used,  the  choice  depending  on  the  type  of 
room  with  which  we  have  to  do. 

The  mantel  is  capable  of  such  an  inexhaustible  varietj'  of 
treatment  that  we  can  only  speak  of  it  in  general  terms.  If  the 
chimney  breast  is  in  the  centre  of  the  wall  of  a  room  not  too 
high-studded,  and  is  of  ample  width,  it  is  never  a  mistake  to  insist 
on  the  horizontal  lines  of  a  mantel.    In  the  first  place  the  shelf 


no  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

may  be  carried  straight  across  the  front  of  the  breast  and  even 
turn  the  corners,  if  our  chimney  projects  into  the  room,  and  return 
on  the  sides  against  the  wall.  The  space  below  the  shelf  on  either 
side  of  the  opening  may  be  treated  with  some  arrangement  of 
panels,  columns,  brackets,  or  pilasters,  and  the  space  above,  if 
we  can  afford  an  overmantel,  either  with  simple  paneling  to  the 
ceiling,  or  more  elaborate  work,  if  the  general  treatment  of  the 
room  demands  it.  When  finished,  if  we  have  managed  to  keep  our 
horizontal  feeling  predominant,  it  will  have  a  very  sober,  restful 
look.  There  is  a  sense  of  physical  weight  about  such  a  design, 
a  feehng  of  inertia,  that  is  a  very  soothing  one  to  tired  nerves.  A 
good  picture  framed  into  the  overmantel  looks  well,  much  better 
than  a  mirror. 

It  is  as  true  of  the  mantel  as  of  the  paneling,  on  whose  province 
it  begins  to  encroach,  that  the  more  the  better.  We  cannot  have 
too  much  wood,  and  if  the  question  were  asked  if  it  would  be  better 
to  have  a  great  deal  of  cheaply  done  paneling  or  a  little  of  verj' 
excellent  quality,  the  author,  after  mature  deliberation,  decides 
that  he  would  refuse  to  answer! 

A  common  mistake  with  a  fireplace  that  is  to  be  much  used  as 
a  centre  of  sociability,  is  to  place  lights  over  the  mantel  shelf. 
When  these  are  lighted  those  in  front  of  the  fire  will  have  to  look 
directly  at  them,  which  is  always  disagreeable.  If  however  such 
outlets  are  sufficiently  supplemented  by  others,  so  that  they  may 
be  treated  merely  as  decorations  if  need  be,  and  their  light  dis- 
pensed with,  it  may  be  a  help  in  the  design  to  keep  them,  and  let 
their  use  be  chiefly  that  of  contributing  to  the  general  ilhmiination 
on  special  occasions. 

The  stairs  of  an  earlier  age,  which  were  of  stone  and  wound 
around  a  central  shaft  or  newel  in  a  tower,  are  now  rarely  found. 
Those  between  two  walls  are  more  common,  but 
Stairs  for  front  stairs  are  generally  avoided.     The  stair 

that  follows  the  walls,  either  straight  or  turning 
with  the  angles  of  the  hall,  were  the  latest  invention  and  the  best. 
They  are  capable  of  much  dignity  and  richness  in  their  treatment. 


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IXTERIOR    DETAILS  111 

and  lend  an  interest  to  the  apartment  in  which  they  occur  that 
transcends  that  of  any  other  feature  of  the  house.  A  stair  is 
really  only  a  luxurious  ladder,  having  stringers  instead  of  sides, 
and  flat  treads  and  risers  instead  of  rungs.  The  hand-rail  would 
have  been  called  an  effete  and  degenerate  invention  by  the  Lake 
Dwellers,  and  the  balusters  a  waste  of  tinie  and  material  whicli 
would  have,  no  doubt,  been  bitterly  assailed  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Society  for  the  Conservation  of  the  Natural  Resources  of  the 
time. 

This  ladder,  as  it  becomes  more  elegant  and  complicated, 
should  add  to  its  other  improvements  that  of  diminishing  in 
steepness.  The  amateur  planner  will  nowhere  have  so  much  diffi- 
culty as  with  the  stairs,  and  nothing  short  of  bitter  experience 
will  teach  him  that  they  are  one  of  the  comparatively  few  things 
that  will  absolutely  admit  of  no  compromise.  There  is  no  stand- 
ard width  for  halls  or  doors,  no  given  size  for  fireplaces  or  rooms ; 
they  may  be  varied  to  suit.  Not  so  our  stairs.  They  are  rigid 
and  intractable.  As  long  as  men  persist  in  growing  six  feet  tall, 
they  must  have  six  feet  of  clear  unobstructed  space  to  walk  in. 
Wliile  their  legs  are  three  feet  long  they  will  object  to  having 
to  hft  their  bodies  more  than  six  or  seven  inches  at  a  step.  And 
if  a  man's  foot  is  not  quite  twelve  inches,  it  is  so  near  it  that  noth- 
ing less  than  that  much  space  will  do  for  him  to  step  on.  There 
are  various  empirical  rules  for  laying  out  comfortable  stairs.  One 
in  common  use  with  stair  builders  is  that  the  product  of  the  rise 
and  tread  must  be  between  seventj'-two  and  seventy-five  inches, 
with  the  height  of  the  tread  between  four  and  eight  inches.  An- 
other rule  in  use  in  England  gives  the  product  as  sixty-six  inches, 
with  the  assumption  that  the  rise  will  be  five  and  a  half  inches, 
and  this  is  further  modified  by  the  rule  that  for  every  one  inch 
of  tread  added  to  or  subtracted  from  twelve  inches,  the  five  and 
a  half  inch  rise  shall  be  diminished  or  increased  by  half  an  indi. 
That  is,  a  rise  of  six  inches  should  have  a  tread  of  eleven  inches, 
a  rise  or  seven  inches,  one  of  nine  inches. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  rule  that  as  the  rise  increases  the  tread 


112  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

decreases,  and  this  is  found  to  be  a  correct  relation.  It  should  be 
said  in  this  connection  that  short  flights  of  steps  outdoors  should 
have  a  wider  tread,  allowing  for  the  longer  stride  which  our 
greater  jiace  will  make  necessar}'.  This  is  also  true  wheVe  two 
or  three  steps  occur  alone  inside.  A  very  good  proportion  for 
comfort  is  a  rise  of  five  or  six  inches  and  a  tread  of  fourteen 
or  twelve. 

The  easy,  luxurious  stair,  if  one  may  ever  call  the  exercise  of 
lifting  oneself  by  one's  calves  a  luxury,  of  our  old  houses,  is  nowa- 
days too  often  rejilaced  by  few^er  and  higher  steps  with  the  accom- 
panying narrow  tread.  Whether  this  is  due  altogether  to  the  rush 
of  modern  life  which  is  wiUing  to  sacrifice  anything  to  speed,  and 
regards  the  elimination  of  one  step  as  a  gain  in  efficiency,  or 
whether  it  is  due  partly  to  lack  of  floor  space  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  a  proper  stair,  is  a  question  that  might  admit  of  debate. 
It  is  always  appalhng  when  our  plan  is  still  on  paper,  to  see  the 
amount  of  room  the  stairs  take  up,  when  they  are  properly  drawn 
to  scale.  They  are  apt  to  so  fill  our  hall  and  encroach  on  doors 
and  passage  sjiace  that  we  feel  something  must  be  done  to  keep 
them  within  bounds,  forgetting  that  they  are  incomj^ressible,  and 
that  the  penalty  of  trying  to  squeeze  them  is  sure  to  be  hard  climb- 
ing or  knocking  one's  head,  or  more  likely  both.  The  steepness 
of  some  flights  sometimes  tempts  one  to  think  that  the  plush  hand 
cord  along  the  wall  might  well  be  used  to  roj)e  the  climbers  to- 
gether before  thej^  start  up. 

It  is  well  not  to  go  the  whole  distance  from  floor  to  floor  with- 
out a  landing  w'here  one  may  pause  for  a  moment  if  desired.  Old 
peoj^le  find  a  long,  uninterrupted  flight  a  considerable  tax  on 
their  strength,  and  such  a  chance  to  get  their  breath  is  much  ap- 
preciated. If  the  stairs  make  a  turn  it  should  be  by  means  of  a 
landing,  and  never  bj'  the  use  of  "  winders  "  if  it  can  be  avoided. 
Winders  are  steps  which  have  their  risers  radiating  from  a  newel 
and  are  of  necessitj^  narrow  at  the  newel,  and  flaring  out  against 
the  opposite  wall.  This  variation  in  width,  together  with  the 
changing  of  direction,  makes  them  the  cause  of  many  accidents. 


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INTERIOR   DETAILS  113 

There  is,  however,  this  to  be  said  in  their  favor,  that  their  varying 
width  of  tread,  according  to  the  distance  from  the  newel,  enables 
long  or  short  legs  to  pick  out  the  step  that  best  suits  them,  and 
this  one  will  unconsciously  do  in  climbing  a  winding  stair.  We 
must  expect  to  find  winders  in  ser^-^ice  stairs,  where  landings  would 
be  too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  the  space  they  require. 

The  English  type  of  stairway  that  will  be  appropriate  in  our 
house  will  not  vary  in  construction  from  any  other,  except  in  the 
one  point  of  having  what  is  called  a  "  close  string,"  that  is,  the 
outer  edge  of  the  stair,  instead  of  allowing  the  risers  and  treads 
to  be  seen  from  below,  is  finished  so  that  the}'  are  entirelj'  en- 
closed, showing  a  straight  edge  i)arallel  to  the  soffit.  The  balus- 
ters, which  will  be  all  of  the  same  length,  rest  on  this  string.  This 
is  as  typical  of  the  English  stair  as  the  "  open  string,"  in  which 
the  ends  of  the  steps  show,  is  typical  of  the  Georgian  or  Colonial 
work. 

As  for  the  rest,  we  shall  have  turned  balusters,  a  heavy  carved 
newel,  and  the  finish  generally  will  partake  of  the  character  and 
scale  of  the  surrounding  work,  which  will  naturally  be  more  heavy 
and  robust  than  in  tlie  Colonial. 

The  chairs  of  the  Tudor  period  were  made  entirely  of  wood, 
and  though  we  may  mitigate  their  rigidity  somewhat  with  the  help 
of  cushions,  we  shall  still  find  them  heavy,  clumsy 
Furniture  and  uncomfortable  affairs,  and  unsuited  to  modern 
ideas.  The  tables  with  their  bulbous  legs  do  well 
enough,  and  many  of  the  cabinets  and  i)rcsscs  of  the  period  with 
tlieir  naive  carving  are  very  (luaint  and  cliarming.  The  cane  fur- 
niture of  the  Stuarts  and  the  turned  work  of  the  Jacobean  period 
are  thoroughly  practical  for  us,  and  a  sterling  style  of  work  that 
strikes  the  hap])y  medium  between  the  chiinsiness  of  the  early 
work  and  the  almost  rococo  quality  of  Avliat  followed.  In  select 
ing  our  furniture  we  need  not  be  too  careful  to  insist  on  luiving 
everything  of  any  one  historic  style.  An  anachronism  will  not 
be  felt  if  we  keej)  the  same  spirit  and  character  in  tlie  work. 
Stuffed  chairs,  upholstered  in  leatlier  or  tapestry,  the  high  re- 


114  THE    HALF-TIMBER    HOUSE 

pousse,  leather-backed  Portuguese  chairs,  or  even  the  armchairs 
of  Italy,  will  not  jar.  Their  fundamental  characteristics  are  the 
same.  Oscar  Wilde  has  said:  "  All  beautiful  things  belong  to  the 
same  period,"  and  if  truth  is  somewhat  stretched  for  the  sake  of 
the  epigram,  it  is  true  so  far  as  there  is  a  bond  of  brotherhood,  a 
secret  understanding,  between  beautiful  works  of  art,  whatever 
their  period  or  country.  Of  course  with  the  "  jieriod  room  "  there 
is  no  problem  of  this  sort.  But  we  need  not  feel  because  we  have 
a  couple  of  chairs  of  one  period,  that  the  whole  room  and  its  con- 
tents must  be  made  to  match. 

It  is  more  dangerous  to  mix  our  periods  than  to  mix  our 
nationalities.  Work  of  the  same  epoch  is  apt  to  have  much  the 
same  character  everywhere.  A  Jacobean  chair  is  perfectly  com- 
patible with  one  of  Louis  XIII  in  France,  but  will  never  do 
with  a  Louis  XV  chair,  or  even  with  an  English  chair  of  the 
time  of  George  III. 

There  is  one  article  of  furniture,  however,  over  the  style  of 
which  we  have  no  control,  namely  that  amorphous  monstrosity, 
the  grand  piano.  Its  portentousness  begins  with  its  name  and 
is  further  evidenced  by  the  great,  shapeless  body  supported  on  its 
fat,  vulgar  legs,  its  unspeakable  "  piano  finish  "  still  further  call- 
ing attention  to  its  grandeur.  On  entering  a  strange  room  if  we 
are  in  an  absent-minded  mood,  our  first  instinctive  thought  on 
noticing  its  funereal  presence  will  be  that  we  must  not  intrude  at 
a  time  like  this  when  the  family's  late  pet  mastodon  is  evidently 
lying  in  state.  It  is  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  decorative 
world  why  it  is  that  civilization  has  put  up  with  such  a  thoroughly 
outrageous  piece  of  furniture  for  so  long.  Perhaps  it  is  because 
one  imconsciously  thinks  of  the  ugly  woman  with  the  beautiful 
voice,  and  with  a  sigh  classes  it  as  another  one  of  the  mysterious 
workings  of  nature.  But  it  is  not  a  necessity  at  all.  Splendid 
piano  cases  have  been  designed,  but  it  is  only  spasmodically  that 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  Victorian  era  has  been  for  a  moment 
shaken  off.  To  have  a  case  especially  designed  means  that  we  shall 
have  no  choice  in  selecting  the  tone  of  the  piano  but  must  take 


INTERIOR   DETAILS  116 

"  the  works  "  as  it  comes;  and  there  is  of  course  a  great  choice  in 
the  tone  of  pianos  even  of  the  best  makers. 

There  is  no  more  dehghtful  study  in  the  decorative  arts  tlian 
that  of  furniture.  Men  of  all  ages  have  gloried  in  lavishing  their 
best  energies  and  skill  on  the  artistic  invention  and  beautifying 
of  the  articles  in  daily  use.  Men  have  always  expressed  their 
true  selves  in  the  work  they  loved  best  to  do.  Of  old  furniture  it 
is  not  too  much  to  say :  Show  me  what  a  man  sits  on  and  I  will  tell 
you  what  he  is. 

The  subject  of  the  styles  of  furniture  is  not  one  to  be  treated 
lightly  or  dismissed  in  a  paragraph,  and  is  far  beyond  the  scope 
of  any  such  general  work  as  this. 

Public  education  in  matters  of  architecture  and  decorative  taste 
have  made  gigantic  strides  in  the  last  twenty  years.  In  nothing 
do  we  show  the  characteristics  of  a  quick-thinking,  adaptable 
jieople  as  in  the  eager  rece])tion  we  give  this  renaissance  of  the 
arts  in  which  we  have  had  so  large  a  share.  No  better  architec- 
ture is  being  done  anywhere  in  the  world  to-day  than  in  this 
country,  and  if  some  of  the  allied  arts  lag  a  little  behind  we  feel 
that  it  vnU  not  be  for  long;  for  abihty  and  enthusiasm  are  at 
work,  and  the  result  will  be  beauty  in  the  service  of  man. 


Tuc  DMn'riuirrT  prem,  caudiiidok,  d.  s.  a. 


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